Tunnels and Teeth.

What's important to you?

The big show.

“Tits and teeth girls, tits and teeth” would come the voice of the director, hissing at the gossiping chorus line waiting for the curtain to rise.

Happy memories of school musicals. In hindsight, like much that seemed normal in the 80s, maybe encouraging teenagers in that way doesn’t sound the best these days. People still say it of course, although perhaps with a tad more self mockery, or irony, these days.

Anyway, we’ve another big show coming - the biggest show - the election.

Yesterday the parties of the left were not enticing us with “tits and teeth”. I could imagine such a phrase coming from Cap’n Curly, or Ace Rimmer, or even Knickers Willy, but it’s hard to picture it coming from Marama or Chippy. No, what they gave us was “tunnels and teeth”.

Actually the whole schtick about the left not being able to have a laugh is much overstated. As we see here at the lucky dip of re-useable mugs available at the Waiheke Ostend Market in the weekend:

https://www.facebook.com/chloeNZgreens/photos

In response to National’s transport plans to cover the land in roads, Labour have upped the bid to include… roads under the sea.

Yay more roads! I’m kidding. Sort of.

Labour’s plan is to build two tunnels under the Waitemata, providing three lanes in either direction for cars and trucks. Then, after that, they’ll build a rail tunnel, which will provide some great travel options for people on Auckland’s North Shore.

Chris Hipkins. Photo: Abigail Dougherty/Stuff.

Hipkins said it was a bold plan for Auckland’s future that would deliver a modern transport network that will connect all parts of the city.

“This is going to take many years, and it will be into next decade before we see it.

“Under this proposal the network will become joined up, allowing Aucklanders to travel from the north to the south, east and west on public transport - freeing up room on the existing Harbour Bridge and in the new road tunnel for those who want to drive.”

Although I’m not keen on the idea of building more roads during a climate emergency, perpetuating our reliance on private motor vehicles, I’d give Labour good marks for including a rail tunnel. One that actually goes to places other than stations along the motorway corridor, which necessitate feeder services or park and rides, making public transport less attractive.

But they could just do the rail tunnel, in a fraction of the time and for only a small part of the cost. Or at least, as the Greens have suggested, do the rail part first. Taking people out of cars as the top priority is surely a more important step than first building infrastructure to support more vehicles.

It seemed odd to me to have a major election announcement that will mostly benefit the North Shore, one of the wealthiest, and most solidly blue urban areas in the country. I mean, it does rather look like a National transport policy, and it should be no surprise that that party quickly confirmed they supported it. Well apart from the rail tunnel obviously, they opposed that part.

Labour have a couple of millstones around their neck this election, which are, to some degree, fair. But in other ways the negative perceptions do not match reality.

Still, the ins and outs of what was promised, and when, doesn’t really matter. Come election time all that matters is public opinion and when it comes to both KiwiBuild and Light Rail to Auckland Airport, Labour’s reputation is not good.

In the case of housing a negative perception is both ridiculously unfair, but also completely understandable. Despite a project reset years ago Labour remain haunted by the promises of KiwiBuild. A project that while well intentioned seemed to have received about as much due diligence as a National Party roading policy. It’s a shame because Labour have an enviable record on housing.

One in seven of all public homes in Aotearoa was built by this government! Think about that for a minute, one in seven! That’s pretty bloody awesome isn't it? People should be clamouring for Labour to remain in power specifically over their housing record but due to the pie in the sky numbers promised by KiwiBuild they receive a pass mark in the eyes of the public on housing, at best.

With transport on the other hand, there is little to show after six years in power. Most people can accept an amount of design and planning needed to happen before light rail to the airport could be built. Apart from Simeon Brown who seems to think Phil Twyford should have been out there with a spade the morning after the election. But I don’t think anyone thought we’d see so little progress after all this time.

Add to that the Sky Path plans for cyclists and pedestrians, which were abandoned in 2021. I have to say I’m really surprised Labour would want to to be launching a major, long term, Auckland based, transport project, as was announced yesterday. I can only assume it was to minimise the impact of National’s roading policy.

Is spending at least $40b on this, over decades, which will primarily benefit north shore commuters, a good priority? Either in terms of spending, or politically? Perhaps not, when you consider all the other things that that money could go on instead.

Meanwhile the Greens were announcing their plan to have a community based dental service, funded by a Wealth Tax.

“The new dental service will provide free annual check-ups and cleanings available to everyone in their local community, free dental care, such as fillings, sealants, and tooth removals, mobile dental vans, portable clinics, and funding for community dental clinics, including on marae, and specialist care for people when they’re in significant pain, require oral surgery or need complex treatment.”

No one likes going to the dentist, but for the hundreds of thousands of Kiwis who are not getting the dental care they need, not being able to afford to go is a far worse situation.

Both of these policies have merit but the reality is one seems like a fresh offering which will have wide appeal - that’s the tooth one. The other one might be a good idea but the problem is voters will look at it, and at this Labour government’s track record on large transport projects, and many will roll their eyes.

For the same money as these tunnels you could fund the Greens’ dentistry policy for the next 25 years. Which do you think most voters would prefer to have?

Marama Davidson Photo: RNZ / Niva Chittock.

Chris Hipkins has said Labour does not support the dental policy.

I wonder how the 40% of New Zealanders who put off going to the dentist due to cost, surely people Labour represents, feel about that versus the focus on better commuting options for the residents of Aucklands affluent North Shore suburbs.

We could look at this as simply as saying - if you think the money should be spent on free dentistry vote for the Greens, and if you’d rather spend it building additional roads to the North Shore vote Labour. But that causes confusion in the minds of voters, who what to know what sort of government they will get. The opposition will certainly see to that.

Why not highlight commonality? I can’t see why Labour would rule out a policy that is not that expensive in the scheme of things, seems to fit with their objective of looking after the standard of living of working people, and would be popular with an awful lot of Kiwis.

Surely it would better to give voters some idea of what a coalition would look like. Obviously the same applies to whatever policy compromises National and ACT might agree to. A topic that seems to finally be getting a bit more coverage from the media.

The Greens policy is way overdue, it just makes no sense that we exclude adult dental care from our public health system. But as much as I might personally support the Greens most people don’t and coming up with the best policies doesn’t mean getting a whole lot more votes. This might attract an extra percent or two.

But if Labour had come out with this dental policy, or even if they turned around now and said they would support it, I think that would attract a lot of voters. It’s a real differentiator between a Labour/Greens government and a National/ACT one. It should appeal to an awful lot of Kiwis who are finding the cost of basic dental care difficult, if not impossible, to afford.

It’s good that Labour and the Greens offer their own policies, and give voters different choices. I just think this policy, of free basic dental care for all Kiwis, is something both parties could have gotten behind.

There are not a lot of good songs about teeth, or dentistry, so on this occasion tunnels win. They made two music videos for this single, this one, believe it or not, is the one that has dated best! Maybe just listen to the song, which is as great now as it was then.