Coleman Jonathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 04 November 2015. Volume:709;Page:7699. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. The Labour Party ironically and unwisely chose 21 October as the day it announced its deputy leader. That was ironic and unwise because 21 October was the official Back to the Future day. That was the day that was supposed to be so far in the future that everything would be completely different. And of course the world is completely different—apart from the fact that Mrs King is still here. But in one weird wacky tiny little enclave the world has not moved on. And that is the New Zealand Labour Party.So as Labour delegates move towards Palmerston North this weekend for their annual conference—held in the seat of King’s College old boy and closet aristocrat Iain Lees-Galloway—it is timely to revisit notes from Labour conferences past. What better place to start than the last time the Labour Party held its conference in Palmerston North back in 1991? That was an occasion of searing self-examination for the party. I have here the official notes from that 75th conference in Palmerston North and I am happy to quote from them. It says in those notes that the Labour Party “Council received an audit of the 1990 Election. … An analysis of [questionnaires] gave familiar phrases. … we declared ourselves disunited and under that label came all the comments”—on caucus the party and musical leaders—“despite declaring our policies inappropriate we also declared that we had lost our direction. … our policies were both wrong and nebulous.”It is indeed back to the future for the Labour Party at Palmerston North this weekend. I wonder whether Dunedin South communications and strategy expert Clare Curran will take a breakout group perhaps updating us on international politics. She might like to update Labour Party members on her 13 September post where she said: “Now the UK has Jeremy Corbyn. And I feel a greater sense of hope … This is good news.” Yes resident hipster Jacinda Ardern will still be mixing the decks and bloke’s bloke tighthead prop Grant Robertson will be trying to give everyone a rundown on the Rugby World Cup but in actual fact nothing has changed.But wait—there is one small announcement. Deputy leader Annette King tells us that she will be saying something small about health policy. Mrs King why not make it absolutely huge? Why not blow the budget like you did in the mid-2000s when you poured more and more money into it and delivered less and less? That is the way to go. Because she has had 7 years to come up with a big idea—why make it a small one?Meanwhile back on “Planet New Zealand” the rest of us are celebrating a great Rugby World Cup win—and what a great win it was. I had the privilege of being over there at the Rugby World Cup. There were thousands of Kiwis there. I met only one Kiwi there who was a passionate advocate for Labour Party policies and that was Andrew Little himself. But apart from that people were saying that not only was it a lucky escape from the Springboks but a very lucky escape from a Labour Government. Kiwis are very grateful that that mob over there is not in power. They know what its tax and spend policies would do to this country.When you look at our 7 years it is a record of solid achievement. The average wage is up $10000 in the last 10 years ACC levies have been reduced and of course record low interest rates mean Kiwis are able to borrow money at a lower cost and get on with their lives. There are more people in jobs. The future is looking up. If you look at the health system—I was down at Canterbury yesterday at the rebuild of the Burwood Hospitalthere. That is $1 billion the Government is putting into the rebuild in Canterbury in terms of health and an extra $16 million of revenue poured into Canterbury yesterday.Hon Annette King: They only needed $46 billion.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: There are 5500 more doctors around the country 60000 more appointments and 50000 more operations per year. Mrs King would pour money in for fewer results and blow the surplus. That is what would happen. There is no sense over there of an overriding fiscal strategy.So if anyone is at a really loose end this weekend pull on your vintage Amalgamated Engineering Printing and Manufacturing Union t-shirt get to Palmerston North and party with Grant and Jacinda like it is 1991. Kia ora.