Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 19 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7932. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
12. 
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does he still have confidence in the Associate Minister of Health; if so why? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 I have confidence in all three Associate Ministers of Health because they are working hard for a brighter future for all New Zealanders. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: In respect of Mrs Tariana Turia how can he have confidence in this Associate Minister of Health given that she has paid $7.6 million in public money to traditional Maori healers over the last 4 years without being able to provide a shred of evidence that the treatment works? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I do not believe that to be correct in so much as the contracts are regularly monitored by the Ministry of Health most providers provide reports against those contracts every 6 months the contracted providers are also audited by the ministry through a mix of desk-based audits and visits and if we look at the number of people who have received those services over that period of time in broad terms it adds up to a touch over 50000 individuals. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The right honourable Prime Minister supplementary question. Sorry the Rt Hon Winston Peters supplementary question. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I always thought you were a soothsayer. How can the Prime Minister support a policy that sees the taxpayer forking out $130 per client contact for something that the practitioners say may be no more than a service such as to use their words “as simple as a smile”? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I think what the member is referring to is rongoa services which are used by clients for a number of different reasons but are in line with Maori culture. They can include everything from therapy right through to massage. In fact that is not unique to Maori. We also provide significant funding for chaplaincy services and I assume the member is not telling New Zealanders that he thinks that when someone is potentially on their deathbed in a hospital they should not receive the support that they might receive from a chaplain in their final days. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Given that the chaplaincy service has nothing to do with it whatsoever is rongoa Maori receiving millions while every other alternative provider has been shut out of this process or is Mrs Turia’s excuse for rongoa Maori not being held to the same scientific standards as other medical procedures because to use her words “It is more of a spiritual thing …” not just plain unadulterated racial discrimination? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: So it is important that we understand what the member is talking about. He is talking about the expenditure of $1.9 million out of a budget per year out of an annual expenditure of about $14.5 billion. We are talking about in 2010-11 19378 people around the country receiving support that may have been mental and spiritual in nature very akin to chaplaincy services. So the member gets into the House— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think I have given him a long enough time to answer my question which was: are these two examples of alternative providers being shut out and that it is a spiritual thing as an explanation not just plain unadulterated racial discrimination? That is the question I am asking him. He might not like to answer it but he has got to address that question. 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I am quite happy to answer it. These are services paid for by the Government that have as part of them that they are spiritual services—that is quite correct. They provide support for people in need. Anyone can access it if they choose to. And by the way the member is not on his feet talking about chaplain services because he knows that would offend his base but he is quite happy to attack the spiritual— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Again I have asked him the question as to why it is not racial discrimination. He is putting up the chaplaincy services as a rather weak point because we financed $500000 last time I was a Minister. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The Prime Minister has answered that. He said it was not racial discrimination in his opinion. It was delivering it to New Zealanders in need. Have you further supplementary questions? 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: No that’s it.