'What's the big deal?' Duncan Garner urges Govt to rescue sick woman from Bali

  • 29/08/2018

Duncan Garner has urged the Government to pay to bring home sick mother Abby Hartley from Bali. 

"What's the big deal?" he said on The AM Show on Wednesday. 

"I'm gobsmacked by this - my eyes are on stalks - and quite frankly I don't think it's fair."

The woman, 41, is fighting for her life in a Bali hospital, after falling deeply ill on the first day of her 'second honeymoon' with husband Richard.

Ms Hartley took out insurance but not for this particular issue because it's a pre-existing respiratory condition. 

Her husband has written to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pleading with the Government to bring this woman home because she's getting sicker. 

Ms Ardern passed the request to Winston Peters who rejected Richard's request because Foreign Affairs has rules against bringing people home from overseas when they're ill. 

"Why can't we break the precedent Winston Peters? They're breaking precedent all the time this Government!" Garner said. 

He questioned why the Government is willing to fork our money for Pacific Island nations but not for a Kiwi woman who's suffering in Bali. 

But 46 percent of people voted against paying to bring Ms Hartley home in The AM Show's poll asking if the Government should pay. 

Co-host Mark Richardson said even if the Government breaks precedent, it's "not going to stop me paying for travel insurance because I know it's the responsible thing to do."

He said bureaucrats "always want to make things black or white so it's easier for them to administer." 

"The world is not black or white - it's grey - and they have to learn to operate in those grey areas."

Newshub.