Dunedin and Otago face huge problems - inadequate hospital scanning equipment, rural water allocation and quality issues, and climate change - but collaborative answers can be found.
That positive message emerged from comments by many of the 15 candidates for city and Otago local government elections at a meeting for female and non-binary candidates organised by the National Council of Women in Dunedin last night.
Carmen Houlahan, a candidate for both the Dunedin mayoralty and the Dunedin City Council, said she had enjoyed interacting with her fellow candidates at a series of public meetings.
"We've shown we can work together and can work collaboratively,'' she said.
She hoped that spirit could continue, in the public interest, beyond the elections.
Peace was also in danger of breaking out on several other occasions as several candidates agreed with points made by fellow candidates who urged more unity, more creative responses to conflict, more support for the less well-off, and more robust action was needed, irrespective of the challenges, whether cancer or climate change.
Lyndell Kelly, a medical specialist in radiation oncology, standing for the Southern District Health Board, said it was unacceptable that patients were left waiting for many weeks or months for vital cancer scans because there was not enough scanning equipment, and not always sufficient staff to run it.
Some GPs had virtually given up waiting for for colonoscopies to be done, she added.
Hilary Calvert, a candidate for the Otago Regional Council, said the regional council had not done enough to deal with a backlog of updated water permit requirements, and some decision-making had been left open to court challenges, and concern from central government was growing.
Mayoral and city council candidate Scout Barbour-Evans said issues of climate change and socioeconomic disadvantage were intertwined and more action was needed.
Other candidates present were DCC and/or mayor: Christine Garey, Mandy Mayhem-Bullock, Sophie Barker, Sarah Davie-Nitis, Rachel Elder, Marie Laufiso; SDHB: Ilka Beekhuis, Jeanette Saxby; ORC Gretchen Robertson, Marian Hobbs.
