Jones Dail: General Debates 
Jones Dail: General Debates 
[Volume:611;Page:8351] 
DAIL JONES (NZ First) 
: 
 Recently in the Christchurch coroner’s court a Japanese woman told an inquest into the death of her daughter that she had come to this country solely to give birth and thereby obtain New Zealand citizenship for the child. The  
New Zealand Herald 
 in an editorial on 1 September indicated that the Government needs to get a better grasp of exactly what is going on. There are too many travellers in our maternity units for comfort.  
Today we have heard the Minister of Health Annette King and an Associate Minister of Health Damien O’Connor speak in this debate but neither of them has shown the slightest concern for those women in our country who are going to maternity wards and being told as was the case with a young woman at the North Shore Hospital that they will have to leave. After delivering the child that North Shore woman was told that she would have to leave in 2 hours. She was packed off and sent on her way 2 hours after giving birth. This was reported in the  
North Shore Times Advertiser 
 on Thursday 28 August: “A North Shore mother is upset after being asked to vacate her North Shore Hospital bed at 4.20 a.m. only two hours after giving birth.” The hospital tried to say that it did not want her to do that but in actual fact the hospital found a car seat for the couple to borrow and Ms Maire the mother was delivered by wheelchair to the car. That is what we are seeing happen in New Zealand today. Why is it happening? It is a fact it would seem that women are coming from overseas to take advantage of New Zealand’s hospital services. They are paying for it of course. Is that the difference? Those people come from overseas and the hospitals charge them for having their children in the hospital. The hospitals want overseas people to come to New Zealand so they can charge them for having children but when the mother is a New Zealander she has 2 hours and she is gone and this Government does not care two hoots about it. 
This Government has been asked by the  
New Zealand Herald 
 and it is now being asked by New Zealand First: what is its policy on this issue? This is a North Shore matter and I am disappointed that no National Party members in the House have taken the slightest interest in the issue. I believe it is the most important issue facing New Zealand and especially Auckland at the present time. Do we not care about the birth of our children in New Zealand? The Minister of Health is a woman and the Prime Minister is a woman but we just get these fancy statements from the Prime Minister that she is the victim of her own success as a competent and popular Prime Minister. She should tell that to Ms Maire and Ms Maire should tell that to all the other women on the North Shore. There is now a concern in both the North Shore and west Auckland. The article in the  
North Shore Times Advertiser 
 states: “Ms Maire says she has a lot of pregnant friends who are now worried about giving birth at North Shore Hospital.” 
What is this country coming to? We cannot even deliver our children. New Zealanders cannot even get preference to be born in a New Zealand hospital and the Labour Party does not give two hoots about it. All we heard in the debate today was talk about “corngate”. We heard the Minister of Health have a go at somebody in the National Party about something that happened in 1999. We heard an Associate Minister of Health go on about something irrelevant as well. What is important is what is happening today and in fact what is not happening today. Our mothers should be spending more time in hospital than just 2 hours and they should not be given the boot at 4.20 a.m. by North Shore Hospital staff or the staff of any other hospital. Is it not also an irony—I have read this in one of our newspapers—that we do not have enough jobs for doctors in our hospitals? Members might ask why. It is because the Labour Party’s immigration system is bringing in foreign doctors to take jobs from our own doctors. 
There is absolutely no coordination in what the Labour Party is doing. It does not have the faintest idea of what is happening in our country and does not give two hoots. I am really staggered that in the House today the Minister of Health Annette King gave no indication whatsoever about her concern for the women of the North Shore and of Auckland or for the children. That kid was 2 hours old and he was off down the road. Jesus Christ was born in a stable but at least he had a bit more time in it. Now young New Zealanders spend 2 hours in the hospital and they are off. They are stuck in wheelchairs with their mothers and they are off down the road at 4.20 a.m. It is an absolute disgrace.