Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): This Government has proven in the last two years that the best economic response to the pandemic has been a health response. More than that in order to secure our recovery we had to ensure that our health response was the best possible and we had to do it with a health system that has been run down year after year after year and midway through the attempts by this Government to rebuild it and build it back up.I want to acknowledge the incredible work of our health workforce right across the motu. Health workers in our hospitals in our GP clinics and in our community clinics—in the full range of facilities that we've got—are all doing a tremendous job to keep New Zealanders safe from the pandemic and often putting themselves at risk as well. Keeping themselves safe keeping patients safe providing the care often with short-staffed shifts because there was a staff shortage anyway and having each other's backs and looking after each other—that's the quality of our health workforce at the moment. But I'm the first to acknowledge of course that's not sustainable and we have to make change.I want to talk a little bit about how we're going to ensure this country's ongoing economic recovery by having a high-quality high-class world-class health system—and that's what our reforms are about right now. The reality is as a country we have under-invested in health for far too long—or at least not invested in the right things; the stuff that can really make a difference. I'm very pleased to be leading a set of reforms that I know over time will start to see that shift in what we spend in hospitals and the very expensive end of health into the front end: the primary care the places where most people go to get the healthcare that they need. The consultation with the GP or the kaupapa Māori health service or the Pacific health service or the community clinic or the youth one-stop shop clinic that they go to for a bit of healthcare—that's the stuff that stands to make a real difference and I'm pleased that we are putting in place a system and a set of measures that will see that shift towards that end.When we have a look and see what's happened to our health system and the consequences of under-investment: buildings being left to run down buildings literally with sewerage systems that are not working properly any more. I think one of the worst things is too in the nine years of the previous National Government nurses' incomes going backwards in real terms. They talk a big game now about wanting to lift incomes; they didn't give a darn about our hard-working nurses in our hospitals. This is a Government that in the four years we've been in Government has not only negotiated pay increases worth roughly 20 percent on average to nurses but has recently reached agreement in principle on the first pay equity deal for that part of the workforce and with more to come with other parts of the health workforce as well. We will have a health system that is better coordinated that is more coherent and that will lead transformation of the system; better joined-up care because that is what we have long needed.Not only that but a system much more focused on equity and that's the important role that the Māori Health Authority will play—in the way that we've seen with the vaccination campaign when we asked Māori to lead gave them the room and space and the funding to do so; they led and did a terrific job. That was rangatiratanga in action. That's what we need to see more of and I'm confident that we will. The interim Māori Health Authority and interim Health New Zealand now with their boards in place their chief executives in place and their senior leadership teams now coming into place working hand in hand together are about to make a real difference and are making sure that in the future Māori do not miss out any more.I want to talk a bit about mental health too because that's a very important part of our health services. If there is anything that was completely and utterly galling it is members of the National Party who literally neglected our mental health services for nine years—not only neglected it but the independent monitor of our mental health services what was then called the Mental Health Commission they abolished. They abolished in 2012 the Mental Health Commission that was the independent monitor of our mental health services. No wonder they thought they could get away with neglecting it but they can't any more. It's interesting now how they claim that they want to work collaboratively on mental health services but they've run them down—they've never acknowledged it; they've never admitted it.The contribution that this Government has made—the four- or five-year investment commitment we've made starting in 2019—we've added now 870 new front-line roles to primary mental health care; 870 new roles that were not there two years ago. And we've got more to go and they're not just in the GP clinics and the community clinics; they're in youth one-stop shops they're in kaupapa Māori health services and all over. We will have a health service that will be the envy of the world.