New Zealand’s aged care sector is in crisis.

Aged care has been chronically underfunded by successive governments, resulting in a lack of capital investment in facilities. This comes as the sector grapples with rising costs and an acute shortage of 1200 registered nurses.

Many providers have had no option but to close beds, with a number closing their doors for good.

In the past year, over 1000 beds have closed permanently and 1200 closed temporarily due to staff shortages. More closures are expected to follow.

In an effort to get the Government to listen and take action, the Aged Care Association is launching a campaign today, titled ‘The Domino Effect’.

Interim chief executive of the Aged Care Association Katherine Rich Kerre Woodham to talk about the situation.

LISTEN ABOVE

New Zealand’s aged care sector is in crisis.
Aged care has been chronically underfunded by successive governments, resulting in a lack of capital investment in facilities. This comes as the sector grapples with rising costs and an acute shortage of 1200 registered nurses.
Many providers have had no option but to close beds, with a number closing their doors for good.
In the past year, over 1000 beds have closed permanently and 1200 closed temporarily due to staff shortages. More closures are expected to follow.
In an effort to get the Government to listen and take action, the Aged Care Association is launching a campaign today, titled ‘The Domino Effect’.
Interim chief executive of the Aged Care Association Katherine Rich Kerre Woodham to talk about the situation.
LISTEN ABOVE

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Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Katherine Rich: Interim CEO of the Aged Care Association on the aged care crisis and The Domino Effect campaign

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announced yesterday what National had promised all the way through the election campaign. The government's new National Infrastructure Agency will be established this year, unlocking access to more capital for infrastructure and strengthening the government's private finance and commercial capability. So, from the 1st of December, Crown Infrastructure Partners is going to be reimagined and repurposed into the National Infrastructure Agency. It will be charged with acting as the Crown's shop front to receive unsolicited proposals and to facilitate private sector investment in infrastructure, partner with agencies and in some cases, local governments on projects involving private finance, administer central government funds and continue the work that CIP is already doing. 

And it all sounds terribly dry, but it is actually wildly exciting. You know, to have a plan, to have a vision and more importantly, to welcome private partners to help get things moving. I cannot overemphasise how different that is from the previous administration. They believe that government could do it themselves. They had no real interest, this is a generalisation, but they had no real interest in partnering with private enterprise to do much. They believed that government knew best. With this announcement, we can see that the government is looking to the private sector to help get New Zealand cracking. They're open to the possibility that the private sector might actually have some good ideas and might actually be able to do it better and to deliver faster. And I think this is a very good thing. 

I suppose it depends on where you are ideologically. If you believe that big government is best, that government can do it better (I don't know how you could believe that given the evidence, but none the less there we go, pin the colours to the mast), if you believe that that government has the answer to everything then you will look with a somewhat caustic eye at the National Infrastructure Agency. But I truly believe this is a step in the right direction. 

At the moment, what we have now, the Crown Infrastructure Partner is directly responsible for overseeing 46 projects that have come from the Infrastructure Reference Group, and contracts with third parties, handling a total project value of $2.4 billion including $1.3 billon from the government. Previously it's handled the ultra-fast and rural broadband rollouts, rural mobile, marae digital connectivity and the public safety network, it’s also now managing the Cyclone Recovery program of work. Chris Bishop said the National Infrastructure Plan would provide a 30-year road map, setting out priorities for investment. So, this is the most important, then this, then this, then this. There'll be better management of existing assets, and they'll ensure value for money on new projects. 

Chris Bishop plans to seek support from all parties in Parliament via the business committee to hold an annual debate on the National Infrastructure Plan to show areas where parliamentary parties agree, where we don't, and where there is room to compromise in the best interests of New Zealanders. Which is all very well and good, again, that was another campaign promise, Christopher Luxon said they would try and get cross-party support for the big infrastructure projects. 

Rob Campbell's written a piece in the Herald saying that's very well and good if you share the same vision, but if you believe firmly that the environment is the most important, that the Treaty must be upheld and the principles of the Treaty must be followed all the way through any decision making, then you're not going to have the same vision as somebody who says, get that road and just plough through the graveyards, and plough through the tapu sites and off we go. So it's going to be difficult when you have people who with competing ideologies to come to a consensus. 

I don't think it should be that hard. If you have got, and we've seen the feeder groups that that will assess infrastructure projects, so we've got the infrastructure reference group and then onwards and upwards, we've got groups that will sift through all the infrastructure projects they prioritise them - present them to government... surely if you allow Labour say, as the biggest opposition party, to have some representatives on the Infrastructure Reference Group, you leave it to an independent panel to say this is the most important - we need to get cracking on this one first. Otherwise, you do get the voice who shrieks loudest will get the most money. We don't want pork barrel politics where you buy votes by getting infrastructure projects put into your electorate. We don't want that. We want massive infrastructure projects that are going to take years to build to be assessed in order of importance and for them to be started not today, but yesterday. And for them not to fall victim to the three-year parliamentary cycle. It's too expensive and too important.

Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop announced yesterday what National had promised all the way through the election campaign. The government's new National Infrastructure Agency will be established this year, unlocking access to more capital for infrastructure and strengthening the government's private finance and commercial capability. So, from the 1st of December, Crown Infrastructure Partners is going to be reimagined and repurposed into the National Infrastructure Agency. It will be charged with acting as the Crown's shop front to receive unsolicited proposals and to facilitate private sector investment in infrastructure, partner with agencies and in some cases, local governments on projects involving private finance, administer central government funds and continue the work that CIP is already doing.  
And it all sounds terribly dry, but it is actually wildly exciting. You know, to have a plan, to have a vision and more importantly, to welcome private partners to help get things moving. I cannot overemphasise how different that is from the previous administration. They believe that government could do it themselves. They had no real interest, this is a generalisation, but they had no real interest in partnering with private enterprise to do much. They believed that government knew best. With this announcement, we can see that the government is looking to the private sector to help get New Zealand cracking. They're open to the possibility that the private sector might actually have some good ideas and might actually be able to do it better and to deliver faster. And I think this is a very good thing.  
I suppose it depends on where you are ideologically. If you believe that big government is best, that government can do it better (I don't know how you could believe that given the evidence, but none the less there we go, pin the colours to the mast), if you believe that that government has the answer to everything then you will look with a somewhat caustic eye at the National Infrastructure Agency. But I truly believe this is a step in the right direction.  
At the moment, what we have now, the Crown Infrastructure Partner is directly responsible for overseeing 46 projects that have come from the Infrastructure Reference Group, and contracts with third parties, handling a total project value of $2.4 billion including $1.3 billon from the government. Previously it's handled the ultra-fast and rural broadband rollouts, rural mobile, marae digital connectivity and the public safety network, it’s also now managing the Cyclone Recovery program of work. Chris Bishop said the National Infrastructure Plan would provide a 30-year road map, setting out priorities for investment. So, this is the most important, then this, then this, then this. There'll be better management of existing assets, and they'll ensure value for money on new projects.  
Chris Bishop plans to seek support from all parties in Parliament via the business committee to hold an annual debate on the National Infrastructure Plan to show areas where parliamentary parties agree, where we don't, and where there is room to compromise in the best interests of New Zealanders. Which is all very well and good, again, that was another campaign promise, Christopher Luxon said they would try and get cross-party support for the big infrastructure projects.  
Rob Campbell's written a piece in the Herald saying that's very well and good if you share the same vision, but if you believe firmly that the environment is the most important, that the Treaty must be upheld and the principles of the Treaty must be followed all the way through any decision making, then you're not going to have the same vision as somebody who says, get that road and just plough through the graveyards, and plough through the tapu sites and off we go. So it's going to be difficult when you have people who with competing ideologies to come to a consensus.  
I don't think it should be that hard. If you have got, and we've seen the feeder groups that that will assess infrastructure projects, so we've got the infrastructure reference group and then onwards and upwards, we've got groups that will sift through all the infrastructure projects they prioritise them - present them to government... surely if you allow Labour say, as the biggest opposition party, to have some representatives on the Infrastructure Reference Group, you leave it to an independent panel to say this is the most important - we need to get cracking on this one first. Otherwise, you do get the voice who shrieks loudest will get the most money. We don't want pork barrel politics where you buy votes by getting infrastructure projects put into your electorate. We don't want that. We want massive infrastructure projects that are going to take years to build to be assessed in order of importance and for them to be started not today, but yesterday. And for them not to fall victim to the three-year parliamentary cycle. It's too expensive and too important.

Kerre Woodham: The infrastructure plan is wildly exciting

You could hear yesterday the sadness and the contempt and the disbelief in Inspector Tony Wakelin’s voice:

“Look, can I just say I thought that was disgusting. It really was. I mean, I saw some of the footage, it was filmed before emergency services arrived. There were close-ups of people deceased in the van and injured lying on the road. As I say, I thought it was horrible. As I said, a lot of my colleagues, that's not acceptable. You know, we should not be doing that, and I say to the people that are filming that, how would you feel if that was your family?”

Inspector Wakelin is the Counties Manukau Road Policing Manager, and he was speaking yesterday after the horrific, horrific road accident that saw three Samoan workers killed and three of their mates injured as they were all heading to the airport to return to their homes after a season of work. 

I spoke yesterday about the courage and the selflessness of those first people on the scene whose first instinct was to go and help do what they could to offer succour and comfort to the injured and the dying, and how brave they were. That was their first instinct, how can I help? What can I do? I cannot begin to comprehend how other people's first instinct was to invade the privacy and degrade the dignity of the wounded and the dying and take out their mobile phones and film them. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, to upload the images to social media. A deliberate act, long past the time when shock or adrenaline might have caused you to do something foolish. You take out your phone, you start filming, you don't know what's happening, but then later you do. You look at those images and you know what's on them and you upload them to a social media site. 

How have people become so desensitised? I don't watch a lot of this sort of stuff.  I don't have a TikTok account. On YouTube, I don't seek out tragic road accidents, people dying - that is not something I do, so I don't know how you would find this stuff. But clearly people are watching it and have they become so desensitised by the violence and by the violent pornography that they see on social media that they think somehow this is normal. This gross invasion of privacy, this complete and utter lack of empathy, this disregard for humanity is okay. 

How do you get to that point? How do you even teach people basic human decency when their first instinct is not to help, but to film the dying for TikTok?  I assume they get no financial gain from this. They're filming for what, their own viewing pleasure?  So other people can see it? To what point?  I think that's the problem with everyone thinking they can be citizen journalists these days and with social media platforms acting as media outlets, there are simply no boundaries. No rules. No code of conduct or ethics. Even if you didn't grow up with them, when you trained as a journalist you were inculcated with what was expected of you. And I know there are many, many, many problems with mainstream media today, many, I totally accept that, and mainstream media are paying for the mistakes they're making with declining audiences and declining revenues. But no journalist I know would ever have filmed that crash scene. Ever. And our online editors that we have here would never have put that footage online, even if they'd been instructed to, which I can't imagine in a million years. I know for a fact that the young people I worked with would have said no, there's no way we're putting that up. Even if a mistake had made and it had been posted and people had quite rightly complained, we would have been censured and punished as a media organisation. 

There are no such boundaries, rules, censure for the social media platforms. How have people become so desensitised, so lacking in empathy that they can think that this is okay? Does it begin with the stupid pranky, slapping the wall with your hand and then comforting a baby so it thinks it's been hurt. I mean, what? How do people think that's amusing? Do we get desensitised because we hear of so many horrific stories of children and babies and other humans being so violently abused in this country that we think somehow, it's just par for the course. I'll just film it. I cannot understand it. I would love any insight you may have. For the record, I don't watch any disasters overseas. If I see that there's a disaster I don't look. When they say warning, distressing content. I don't go in there. And I'm sorry I'm going to judge if you find watching people dying entertaining, there's something really wrong with you.

You could hear yesterday the sadness and the contempt and the disbelief in Inspector Tony Wakelin’s voice: 
“Look, can I just say I thought that was disgusting. It really was. I mean, I saw some of the footage, it was filmed before emergency services arrived. There were close-ups of people deceased in the van and injured lying on the road. As I say, I thought it was horrible. As I said, a lot of my colleagues, that's not acceptable. You know, we should not be doing that, and I say to the people that are filming that, how would you feel if that was your family?” 
Inspector Wakelin is the Counties Manukau Road Policing Manager, and he was speaking yesterday after the horrific, horrific road accident that saw three Samoan workers killed and three of their mates injured as they were all heading to the airport to return to their homes after a season of work.  
I spoke yesterday about the courage and the selflessness of those first people on the scene whose first instinct was to go and help do what they could to offer succour and comfort to the injured and the dying, and how brave they were. That was their first instinct, how can I help? What can I do? I cannot begin to comprehend how other people's first instinct was to invade the privacy and degrade the dignity of the wounded and the dying and take out their mobile phones and film them. And then, as if that wasn't bad enough, to upload the images to social media. A deliberate act, long past the time when shock or adrenaline might have caused you to do something foolish. You take out your phone, you start filming, you don't know what's happening, but then later you do. You look at those images and you know what's on them and you upload them to a social media site.  
How have people become so desensitised? I don't watch a lot of this sort of stuff.  I don't have a TikTok account. On YouTube, I don't seek out tragic road accidents, people dying - that is not something I do, so I don't know how you would find this stuff. But clearly people are watching it and have they become so desensitised by the violence and by the violent pornography that they see on social media that they think somehow this is normal. This gross invasion of privacy, this complete and utter lack of empathy, this disregard for humanity is okay.  
How do you get to that point? How do you even teach people basic human decency when their first instinct is not to help, but to film the dying for TikTok?  I assume they get no financial gain from this. They're filming for what, their own viewing pleasure?  So other people can see it? To what point?  I think that's the problem with everyone thinking they can be citizen journalists these days and with social media platforms acting as media outlets, there are simply no boundaries. No rules. No code of conduct or ethics. Even if you didn't grow up with them, when you trained as a journalist you were inculcated with what was expected of you. And I know there are many, many, many problems with mainstream media today, many, I totally accept that, and mainstream media are paying for the mistakes they're making with declining audiences and declining revenues. But no journalist I know would ever have filmed that crash scene. Ever. And our online editors that we have here would never have put that footage online, even if they'd been instructed to, which I can't imagine in a million years. I know for a fact that the young people I worked with would have said no, there's no way we're putting that up. Even if a mistake had made and it had been posted and people had quite rightly complained, we would have been censured and punished as a media organisation.  
There are no such boundaries, rules, censure for the social media platforms. How have people become so desensitised, so lacking in empathy that they can think that this is okay? Does it begin with the stupid pranky, slapping the wall with your hand and then comforting a baby so it thinks it's been hurt. I mean, what? How do people think that's amusing? Do we get desensitised because we hear of so many horrific stories of children and babies and other humans being so violently abused in this country that we think somehow, it's just par for the course. I'll just film it. I cannot understand it. I would love any insight you may have. For the record, I don't watch any disasters overseas. If I see that there's a disaster I don't look. When they say warning, distressing content. I don't go in there. And I'm sorry I'm going to judge if you find watching people dying entertaining, there's something really wrong with you.

Kerre Woodham: How have people become so desensitised?

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission's released a report showing how funding from the 2019 Wellbeing Budget has been spent. 

It shows 92% of the $1.9 billion has been spent or committed. 

There's around $163 million that is unspent, and almost $62 million was set aside for capital works. 

Chief Executive Karen Orsborn says they know there's a high degree of public interest in the funding, so they wanted to make that information available. 

She says 57% —1.1-billion— went to health, and $800 million went to other government agencies.

Orsborn told Kerre Woodham that they’ve heard from people who have been using the services, as well as those in the sector, that the money has made a real difference. 

LISTEN ABOVE

The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission's released a report showing how funding from the 2019 Wellbeing Budget has been spent.  
It shows 92% of the $1.9 billion has been spent or committed.  
There's around $163 million that is unspent, and almost $62 million was set aside for capital works.  
Chief Executive Karen Orsborn says they know there's a high degree of public interest in the funding, so they wanted to make that information available.  
She says 57% —1.1-billion— went to health, and $800 million went to other government agencies. 
Orsborn told Kerre Woodham that they’ve heard from people who have been using the services, as well as those in the sector, that the money has made a real difference.  
LISTEN ABOVE

Katherine Rich: Interim CEO of the Aged Care Association on the aged care crisis and The Domino Effect campaign

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