Little AndrewGENERAL DEBATEHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. This is a Government that is setting up our health system to succeed. After years of underfunding; after years of neglecting it; after years of seeing the health workforce being underpaid their pay rates going backwards; we now have a Government that is focused on having a health system that will meet the needs of all New Zealanders.I was very proud last night when the House passed the third reading of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill because that legislation will now set ourselves up to have a health system that will be the envy of the world. We'll have a health system now that focuses on health need a health system that can be coordinated managed and run coherently across the country to meet all the health needs of our communities—a health system that will be focused on equity. Because the reality is we have populations in this country that have been denied access to health services. Māori—to whom we have a commitment under the Treaty of Waitangi to treat equally and fairly and they have not got that in our health services. They have seven years less in terms of life expectancy and longevity compared to the rest of the population. That tells you all you need to know about what is happening and about that inequity of access to our health services. We are on the road to now a health a health system that will be the best for New Zealand. When you look at what the legislation sets up you see Health New Zealand the Māori Health Authority and a public health agency now focused on public health. If there's one thing we've learnt over the last two years it's the importance of public health and public health measures that support a country and a population and we now have that. Supported by the national public health service we bring together all those incredibly talented people out there in our communities already and give them a nationwide leadership that can actually deliver the public health services that are needed on the ground. And we can move them around as there are outbreaks pandemics water treatment disasters in parts of the country. We can move talented people around the country where the need is as opposed to having to negotiate with 20 different—or 12 different—public health service providers. We will have a revamped Ministry of Health that will focus on leading the system. It will bring its incredible intellectual firepower to bear. It will draw on the data that we'll be generating from the new systems—the new platforms that we're in the process of developing because we've invested in technology as well—and give us the best insights and profile of our health needs and our population needs to deliver a health system that will be the envy of everybody. Finally we will have a Pharmac that is now well integrated into the rest of the health administration—Pharmac making decisions about therapeutic treatments that draws on the best from the ministry from Health New Zealand from the Māori Health Authority and from all dimensions of our health system. Because this is a Government that backs health this is a Government that backs our health workforce and this is a Government that wants the best health for every New Zealander in the country. You can contrast that to the members opposite. The Leader of the Opposition was on the radio this morning and when he was asked Are you going to put more cash into health?" what did he say? "No—no. They don't need it." So here it comes again. The good old National Party softening New Zealand up to say "We don't actually need a decent health system; we can carry on underfunding it if we ever get the opportunity to again. We don't have to back our health workforce—we'll just pay them peanuts and hope we get the best out of it." That's what National does when they're in Government because they're obsessed about two things—they're obsessed about two things: tax cuts for the wealthy; and the people who pay for that are the people who depend on public services like our public health service like our other public services as well. That's what the recipe is that National offers the rest of New Zealand: tax cuts for the wealthy and everybody else can pay for it through miserable services—services that don't meet the needs that we've got for our population—and they'll continue to underpay our health workforce. Well this Government is determined to turn that around and ever since we took office—ever since we took office—we have given priority to this most fundamental of social services—keeping people healthy keeping people well providing the services supporting the health workforce and supporting our doctors. And now we have a piece of legislation that every Government will be held to account to. We'll have Government policy statements. We'll have strategies for those populations that have so often missed out: Māori Pacific women the disabled community and rural communities that missed out so much under their mismanagement of health. We will have a health system because this Government this party on this side is the party of high-quality public health."