Would you rather have a tax cut or a better health service?

The cost of that is 100 days of cuts that sink a blade deep through the fabric of our society, our values of fairness and decency

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

a GP that is calm, well paid and able to see you within a few days?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

hospitals without sewerage seeping into the walls?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

a health service where GPs want to work full time doing a job they love, rather than cutting their GP hours to survive mentally?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that your neighbour, a hard-working Kiwi who could never afford insurance, will get a hip replacement before she must give up her job and default on her mortgage?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

a healthcare workforce with enough time, energy and resources to innovate and make things better?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that when your friend’s son attempts to hang himself, he will be seen by mental health services? Not turned away?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that children in poverty will be fed at school?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

have cuts to prescription fees, clean car rebates, cycleways, He Ako Hiringa (lost funding), Ministry of Health (how can we be more efficient and innovative with up to 25 per cent less staff), Healthify (waiting to see if it is funded beyond June), the 15 Year Growing Up in New Zealand study (funding pulled; possibly, they were discovering growing up in New Zealand isn’t what it’s cracked up to be any more? Best to keep the Suicide Prevention Unit)?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

some assurance that drinking water, sewerage and storm water – that infamous trio – will be piped in a way that protects us, our grandchildren, our waterways and our dolphins?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

pay police, nurses, corrections officers, teachers and GPs enough that they won’t leave for Aussie?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that our kin with disabilities can live with the “dignity” Mr Seymour [David, ACT Party leader) grants so generously to landlords?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that schools are being upgraded and resourced to educate our kids?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

some reassurance that we will all have someone kind to wipe our bottoms when we can’t?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that those incarcerated get some help with their trauma, substance abuse, childhood in poverty, abuse in state care or illiteracy?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

have a decent Cook Strait ferry, subsidised public transport and a country where your kids can bike to school safely? (Imagine that.)

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

know that the families who do our really hard work – cleaning, caring, roading, labouring and making our lattes – are not living for years in motels with no kitchen?

Would you rather have a tax cut,

or

be assured that journalism can speak free from the filter of lobbyists, politicians, corporate owners and misinformation?

You will probably get a tax cut,

but

the cost of that is 100 days of cuts that sink a blade deep through the fabric of our society, our values of fairness and decency, our foundational treaty and our sense of collective care for each other.

You will probably get a tax cut,

so

please pay for a personal subscription to New Zealand Doctor Rata Aotearoa.

Journalists need to be paid, too. More than ever, we need good health journalism.

New Zealand Doctor is an award-winning magazine that keeps us up to date with medical politics, provides a forum for sharing good ideas, explains complex health policies, offers links to the original documents under discussion, provides CME, asks tough questions of health ministers and leaders on our behalf, tells us great stories of innovation in healthcare, holds the government to account.

And it’s only $16.50 per month. Free for GP registrars. Please pay your sub at: nzdoctor.co.nz/subscribe-with-us and get digital access, too.

Lucy O’Hagan is a medical educator and specialist GP working in the Wellington region