Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Cunliffe David: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:645;Page:14117] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take part in the debate on the Prime Minister’s statement. One thing that a Minister of Health always has to have some concern about is the overprescription of prescription medicines. When I look across the House and see this listless lethargic Opposition I am a bit worried that somebody has been passing around prescriptions on the far side. A bit too much Valium or Mogadon has been dispensed on the far side—those members barely twitched when their own leader was attempting to give a speech. 
The contrast I have honestly never seen more clearly than I did today—Helen Clark displaying all of the strong leadership the substance and the policy depth that means she can traverse with confidence any issue in any portfolio and John Key trying to do a few stunts and signifying nothing. When looking along the front bench when that speech was being given we saw Gerry Brownlee looking like some sort of lugubrious bloodhound with his triple chins below his belt. We saw Nick Smith looking distressed and tense—well nothing is new there. Bill English was sharpening the knife knowing that next time it would probably be his turn. 
The contrast has never been greater. Labour has a strong vision. We secure the best possible living standards for all of our people. We care about differences and disparities. We believe in an inclusive New Zealand. We are not going to wish it away just by comparing ourselves abstractly with Australia or some other place. We are going to work hard to make this country the best we can be and that does not come from slogans and it does not come from pretending to be “Labour-lite”. It comes from the long hard graft of policy development in portfolios processes implementation and achievement. That is why when the Prime Minister sums up progress and next steps it takes 16 pages and it is all concrete. There is no flimflam; there are real examples—things that affect real people. 
In 2007 it was a year of major achievements a strong and resilient economy and affordable health care—$3 prescription charges now to every New Zealander. There is a big contrast between the two sides of the House. Labour members do not think primary health care is there to provide a gravy train for doctors. We think it is about caring for patients. That is why we are capping GPs’ fees unlike Dr Coleman and his team who are just pandering to vested interests in this very interesting sector. I do not think that does justice to the dedication of those in the medical workforce who get up every day to make the lives of New Zealanders a little better. This Government is working with them to take them forward— 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: Not on this side mate. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: That has got him riled up. I say “Good on you Jonathan.” The member is awake—that is excellent to see. Twenty hours free education for 3 and 4-year-olds has been introduced. KiwiSaver has 400000 entries. That just happens to be about the same as the number of new jobs since we got elected—another 400000. What part of cutting the unemployment rate in half does the National Party not understand? There has been a 56 percent drop in Maori unemployment a 54 percent drop in Pasifika unemployment and a 47 percent drop for other ethnic groups. That is a solid achievement in anybody’s book. 
The National Party had it going the other way. When I was first introduced to the health portfolio I looked at some disparity data. In the bad old days of the 1990s the rich got richer the poor got poorer and the gap got wider. In the last 8 years we have repaired some of that damage to our social fabric and we have—to use an old term—closed part of those gaps. But do members know what? We are not back to where we were before Ruth Richardson’s “mother of all Budgets”. It just happens to be the truth—the numbers do not lie. We have to keep working in the interests of all New Zealanders including the poor the old the young the marginalised and the people who rely upon being able to take their kids to the doctor when they are sick without worrying about whether they can afford it. 
In 1999 I was door-knocking in my first campaign in a street in New Lynn called Northall Road and I will never forget the day I met a young mum. She had three young boys and she had just brought them back from a visit to the doctor. I got talking to her and she started to cry on the street. I said “What’s wrong?”. She said: “My youngest is calcium deficient.” and being naive I said: “What about milk?”. She cried more and said: “I can’t afford milk. I’ve had to choose between paying for the doctor visit and putting milk on the table.” This happened in a country that exports more milk than any other country in the world. She could afford only milk powder because she was paying a private rent after a recent separation and she was being gouged by a landlord and she had to choose between taking her kids to the doctor and paying for milk. I have never forgotten it. There were hundreds of thousands of families in that situation during the last time that the National Party members were in charge. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: They’ll be back there again! 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: They will be back there. Lest New Zealanders believe this “Labour-lite” rubbish that John Key is trying to put as a veneer on the greed and the naivety of National’s policies—lest New Zealanders believe that rubbish—let me tell them that Mr John Key was the right-wing candidate in the leadership race. Bill English was the moderate and the right-wing candidate—the guy from  
The Hollow Men 
 the candidate from central casting—won. He won. We know what the agenda looks like. So if New Zealanders want what they have been getting which is a record of solid achievement it is very easy: return this hard-working team. Return this Government that has a brimful of new ideas to take New Zealand forward in cooperation with our support partners. 
And do members know what? Sometimes these guys in National look at the polls and they forget that we can work with just about every party in this Parliament and they cannot. So if these polls are within a bull’s roar guess who is going to be forming the Government—not them. If they take the smug little grins off their preppy little faces they might realise they have got another 3 years on that side of the House—a whole generation of Tories washed away in their own decay. 
Health is a very very exciting and interesting portfolio. It is one that matters to every Kiwi family and every Kiwi child. Let me touch on a few things that show where the money—the investment that we made—has gone. In terms of workforce and staffing we have put in 2000 additional doctors and more than 4500 additional nurses since we got elected. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: How many? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: We have put in 2000 doctors and 4500 nurses and we have increased the medical school uptake by 45 a year to 365. 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: And the same in education! 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: And it is the same in education. The growth rate in the front-line clinical workforce has been higher than the growth rate in the support workforce. What is a health bureaucrat? By the National Party’s definition it is the receptionist at the front desk of a hospital. What does National want to do—have a brain surgeon answering the phones? Is that an efficient way to run a health system? The National members are all looking at their shoes now because they have no answers. They never did have any answers. 
So where to from here? I could go on and on about our achievements about the primary health care strategy about the low prescription charges—$3 a head now—and about low general practitioner fees so that ladies like the one in Northall Road do not have to choose between food on the table and taking the kids to the doctor. That is what we in Labour stand for—access affordability and security for every Kiwi family from the cradle to the grave. That is what Labour has always stood for. 
Not every Kiwi likes Labour. Some vested interests out there do not like the fact we stand up for the little guy. But with Labour people know what we stand for. This Government has never erred. It has never strayed from its true north which is that every New Zealander is worth the same; every New Zealander is of the same value and deserves the same opportunity and security in life. 
Hon Shane Jones 
: Potential! 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Shane Jones is right—potential. Our policies are built around providing a roof over people’s head education for their children health care when they need it and economic development so that there are jobs which is how we have cut unemployment in half. That is what Kiwis want. 
As Kiwis reflect in this historic election year on where we want to take our country the choice is stark. Do they want to take their country back to the 1990s to a “Labour-lite” leader with a flimflam veneer who has no policy he is willing to talk about? When National started talking about the privatisation of State-owned enterprises and lifting the cap on general practitioner fees the public relations consultant said: “Focus groups don’t like it. Back to Labour-lite.” 
Hon Harry Duynhoven 
: What aren’t they telling you? 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: What are they not telling us? For consistency security opportunity and leadership it is Labour all the way for New Zealand’s future.