Wood MichaelMICHAEL WOOD (Labour—Mt Roskill): The public health system in New Zealand is one of the cornerstones of the civilised and decent society that we live in. It is something that we on this side of the Chamber feel particularly proud of. It was the Social Security Act in 1938 under the first Labour Government that largely established our free public healthcare system in this country. Despite some of the Minister's comments earlier on it was the fifth Labour Government that largely established the structure in our health system that we currently have after the devastation of market-led reforms in the 1990s. This Government has to its credit had the good sense to keep that structure largely in place: democratically elected district health boards primary health organisations and that broader structure that the fifth Labour Government brought in. But what is evident to so many of us in our work as members of Parliament and also through reading the reports that we are considering this evening is that it is a system that is under considerable strain because of the under-resourcing that has become endemic under this Government—the slow bleed of desperately needed resources.As I read through the reports I was reminded of a constituent of mine whom I met just a couple of months ago—a woman in her late 70s who until recently was spritely and happy and active in her community. She was desperately in need of a hip replacement and she was told in November of last year that she was amongst the most urgent of patients on the books of Auckland City Hospital and to come back in March and it would be sorted out. Well that constituent of mine came back in March only to be told that it would be at least another 6 months before she would get another appointment to proceed with that desperately needed operation. So that constituent of mine is not just a statistic; she is a person whose life has been utterly brought down from the active engaged kind of life that she used to lead in our community simply because at critical points in our public health system the resources that our people need are not there under this Government.I know that Minister Coleman when he got up to speak made light of the $1.7 billion funding shortfall that we in this House draw to his attention. The fact is that over 8—nearly 9—years of Government we have population growth and we have inflation. Those things have simply not been kept up with in terms of the funding in our health system.The other aspect that was very evident to me in reading through the reports of the committee is the desperate need in our mental health system. On page 502 of the collated reports the Minister was quoted as saying that young people should be waiting only 3 weeks for a youth mental health appointment yet it is reported in here that we know of cases where some young people have had to wait for as long as 8 months. The records that are kept by the district health boards measure whether people are seen within 8 weeks and even at that measure which is over and above what the Minister says should be happening we know that not everyone is being seen even within that period.On page 500 it says the number of acute mental health beds over the 2015-16 year is down from 602 to 589 across our country. When every single member of this House knows that the need is rising—given the year that is under consideration—we are providing fewer services for people who need acute mental health beds. In Canterbury there are 62 beds that the Canterbury District Health Board provides and it says that on average in 2015-16 it needed 85 beds—on average every day it has that shortfall for people in desperate need of mental health care.I say and we on this side of Chamber say that we are letting down those people and it does not have to be that way. We know that next month there are probably going to be tax cuts announced in the House by the Government. We have got people in Canterbury and across our country who cannot get an acute mental health bed. We say that those are the wrong priorities and this party when in Government will have the right priorities for those people in real need in our communities.On page 494 it says most district health boards are saying they are not meeting their own mental health and addiction targets. We have heard a lot today from the Government about targets. It is all very well to set targets—the Government stands here most days in question time and boasts about the targets it is setting—but targets on their own do not change people's lives. Targets on their own do not help people. Having the right services and the right funding in place and the right priorities is what helps people. These reports show that in respect of health the Government simply is not meeting those needs.