Opinion

Invercargill MP Penny Simmonds says she believes the Southern District Health Board is using its new orthopaedic outpatient programme as a way to hide the huge numbers of Southland people needing surgery. “As part of the orthopaedic programme physiotherapists are running outreach clinics to reduce t

It’s frightening that in the middle of a pandemic we are facing a nursing shortage in Southland. Actually there are huge nurse shortages right across the country. Data recently released to the National Party shows that there are currently 2200 vacant nursing positions around New Zealand – including

It’s 2022 – let’s hope this year brings us better things. Over the past 18 months, Southland’s economy has been hammered by Covid-19. Businesses have suffered and events have been cancelled. The closure of the border slashed $20 billion from NZ’s economy almost overnight with the loss of internation

Sometimes I think I’ve woken up and found myself transported into the movie Groundhog Day. The years and the decades roll by, and as they do, new generations of young journalists are hatched and raised, until they are big enough to crane their heads above the edge of the nest, seeing for the first t

On April 9th Airways announced on its website that it was “considering withdrawing air traffic services at seven regional aerodromes”, Invercargill being one. This went largely unreported as it quietly slipped under the radar with stories of Covid-19 swamping the main-stream media. It wasn’t till Ap

Opinion: While all non-essential workers are at home, trying to keep busy around the house, many of us are left wondering what effects Covid-19 is going to have on the local housing market. Whether your livelihood is directly involved with the property market, like ours. Or indirectly like many; you

I am one of your City Councillors. Towards the end of April, I will be asked to vote on a rate increase for the 2020-21 year (commencing June 2020). It is my view that given the forthcoming financial impact of Covid-19, we should have a zero rate increase. Alongside that, Council is reviewing its ha

“The deep-south has been largely ignored in the Government’s spend up with Invercargill getting no money for roading improvements, MP for Invercargill Sarah Dowie says. “It’s hard to see how the Government’s transport plans won’t come at the expense of transport investment in the deep south when bil