Ryall Tony: Address in Reply — Presentation to Governor-General 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ryall Tony: Address in Reply — Presentation to Governor-General 
[Sitting date: 28 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:585. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 I would like to support the motion in respect of this debate and to strongly associate myself with the excellent I thought speech from the Minister for Social Development the Hon Paula Bennett this afternoon. It is clear from her own personal experience and her own determination that she is decided of the view that so much more could be done for those who are on welfare to assist them to a life of independence.  
I thought the Prime Minister also touched on very important and pertinent facts this afternoon in question time when he talked about the creation of 62000 new jobs and unemployment falling which are very significant facts especially in a time of remarkable international uncertainty. That international uncertainty really comes from what has been described as the cancer of debt and deficit in so many parts of the world. As the Minister of Finance said you need only turn on the television every night to see the impact of that cancer of debt and deficit on communities all around the world. We are seeing problems in Greece where there is rioting in the streets services being cut back and taxes having to be paid for the first time in generations it would seem—real pressure in Greece. In Portugal for example there are huge financial pressures on the economy there as a result of the global financial crisis. The Government in Portugal is being forced to partially privatise a significant public asset at the behest of the European banks and the IMF. It is having to sell significant stakes in public assets because of dictate from outside interests.  
If you look at Ireland for example you see it is now having to partially sell significant amounts of public assets over there—electricity companies dams shares in Aer Lingus forestry assets—in order to get its debt under control. But unlike New Zealand it has no choice about this; it is being required to do that by the IMF and the European banks. And this story is being repeated in countries like Spain Italy and France where the former Minister of Education says tens of thousands of teachers in France are being made redundant because of the tough economic times.  
Then you go across the Channel to Britain where Britain’s debt in the last 5 or 6 years has grown from 30 percent of GDP which is the peak of where we want to get to in New Zealand to over 70 percent of GDP. It now has itself in the position where the Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne says Britain cannot borrow any more money. It cannot get it. This is what happens: debt is 70 percent of GDP it cannot borrow any money any more and 700000 public servants are expected to lose their jobs in the next year or so. This is what happens when debt gets out of control. Countries lose determination. They lose self-determination. New Zealand does not want to be in the position of countries like Portugal Greece and Ireland where they are required to make decisions because of foreign lenders demanding them.  
New Zealand needs to remain independent and we must keep our debt under control and that is what this Government campaigned on in the last election. We have a plan to keep our debt under control and retain our own self-determination as a country—our own sovereignty separated from the demands of those who are our foreign lenders. That is why the Government has a plan in the mixed-ownership model which will invite New Zealanders to be at the front of the queue to participate in ownership of up to 49 percent of those companies with a 10 percent cap on any one shareholder. And that is part of our plan: to use those proceeds to help control our debt and use that money as part of a Future Investment Fund to support the needed infrastructure in schools and hospitals that this country may have in the next 4 to 5 years. It is about controlling the debt because if you do not control your debt you lose your right to decide what your country does into the future. And that is no false claim. Just look at what is happening throughout Europe—it is all about the debt.  
But even in these most difficult economic times this Government led by John Key remains determined to protect and grow the New Zealand public health service. We have put significant amounts of money in: $1.5 billion of extra money over the last 3 years has gone into the health budget. It sees 800 new doctors both junior and senior working in our hospitals and over 2000 more nurses on the payroll working in our public hospitals today than there were 3 years ago. And together with strong leadership from district health boards we are achieving in the New Zealand public health service very considerable positive results. They were published in your local newspaper today Mr Deputy Speaker as we reported to New Zealanders on what the district health boards had done in the six national health targets.  
We are seeing more New Zealanders than ever getting elective surgery. Elective surgery is vital because it allows people to ease the pain and the suffering that they have been under and to get back to work or to look after their families better than they were. We are not having a situation like under the previous Government where the funding doubled and no more people got surgery. Under this Government we are delivering more and more and more operations for New Zealanders year after year after year and improved productivity in our hospitals much of it being led by nurses in the way that they manage the wards etc. So there is more elective surgery.  
In our hospitals’ emergency departments there is the best performance we have ever had: 92 percent of all patients who turned up were either treated discharged or admitted to a ward within 6 hours. That is very important. In Western Australia last month the first analysis of an Australasian emergency department target was published. Western Australia has a target of treating about 85 percent of patients within 4 hours—ours is 90 percent within 6 hours—and what its research has shown is that the introduction of an emergency department target in Western Australia which has required the whole of the health service to change the way it works in order to improve the flow of patients has saved potentially 250 lives. That is what its emergency department target did. It has created a whole of health system change it means that people get dealt with sooner and it says—it is not the Government in Western Australia that says it; it is independent academic analysis—up to 250 lives have been saved. That is a quality performance unmatched by any other Government in this country. We are getting 92 percent of our patients through emergency departments into the wards into their radiology tests and into their specialist appointments faster than ever before.  
Thirdly I come to cancer treatment. No New Zealander had to wait more than 4 weeks to begin their radiation treatment when they were ready. No New Zealander has had to be sent to Australia since the end of 2008. That is a really significant achievement for New Zealand. And in the middle of this year we are going to add another pledge to cancer patients: no one needing chemotherapy should have to wait more than 4 weeks to get their treatment.  
But we are also making huge progress in preventative health measures and dealing with infectious diseases. Is it not just ironic cant from the party opposite to complain about infectious diseases in New Zealand when it left 30 percent of 2-year-olds unimmunised when it was last in Government? Thirty percent of 2-year-olds were not immunised. That is what it left. The number of Maori kids who at 2 years old were immunised under that crowd was about 53 percent. [ 
Interruption 
] I think they did care I just do not think they did anything about it. But under this Government we have focused on that: we now have 92 percent of New Zealand 2-year-olds fully immunised. That is protection against infectious diseases and for a party that spent 9 years talking about closing the gaps and did not do anything I say that we have closed the gaps. There is no gap between Maori Pacific and Pakeha on 2-year-old immunisation in this country.  
On rheumatic fever that crowd put out a strategy in 2001 that said they would halve rheumatic fever by 2005. Well you know what? They put out the strategy and did nothing—they did nothing. Our rheumatic fever rates are now at Third World level. It took this Government in coalition with the Maori Party to invest significant amounts of money in dealing with rheumatic fever and I reckon in 3 years’ time when we are on the campaign trail we will have a record in dealing with rheumatic fever that will be one of the greatest points of pride that this Government will have in the run-up to the next election because we will deal with it. They had a strategy in 2001 and did nothing. They have got 63 health strategies and still could not achieve what we have done in 3 years.  
We have also dealt with smoking. If we can get fewer people smoking in their homes with their kids that will deal with respiratory disease. That party had a strategy in 2001 to deal with respiratory disease: it put the price of smokes up once and never did it again. We have put the price of smokes up three times in a row and academics say it is the single most— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I am not sure the member heard the bell—it is a bit ill—but his time has expired. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: And so has it expired for many smokers with the work that we are doing.