Peters Winston: Affordable Healthcare Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: Affordable Healthcare Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 02 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8487. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First): The health insurance industry health professionals and the general public have expressed dismay at the opposition from the National Party to our bill. Parliamentary videos show the famously apoplectic David Bennett spouting on in his ignorance and frenzied attacks by National MPs including the Minister of Health tossing around unsubstantiated figures but none of the benefits. We got Business and Economic Research Ltd to do the work for us. It said that the benefits were up to $250 million. We do not want to hear from another MP who by a tea party back-stabbing attack on the good Dr Hutchison got into this Parliament. That is why he represents Hunua. The whole thing stinks.This is the National Party’s double-talk at its worst. Compulsory health insurance for migrants is already in New Zealand immigration law. Migrant work visas investor migrants and retirement-category migrants are all required to take out health insurance—so much for the Attorney-General’s New Zealand Bill of Rights Act nonsense; it was just debunked in three easy examples. The Affordable Healthcare Bill is only adding a category of elder migrants that was missed by past legislation because not like them in Parliament today we did not allow this rampant influx of people. There is now over 80000 over 8 percent already added to our superannuation bill. That is what we are trying to fix up. Like the retirement visa migrants most in this category are older migrants who will add more heavily to public health care costs. There is no requirement for any of them to have contributed to our economy in order to access all these benefits. You cannot find one other country on earth that allows this.As to removing fringe benefit tax (FBT) from workplace insurance—why the Prime Minister publicly supports this health insurance measure every chance he gets to appease the business community. Here are his words: “At the moment any employer who offers health insurance gets hit by a fringe benefit tax. I think it’s crazy. The more we can encourage employers to provide wholesale medical insurance for their staff the better.” Who said that? Why John Key their glorious leader. Then—here we go; here we go—another example: “Elimination of FBT on health insurance in the workplace is a good start.” Who said that?Hon Member: It was “Flip-flop Key”.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: That is right—the serial flip-flopper. He said it again in August this year at the Upper Hutt Chamber of Commerce. This is what he said as reported by the Upper Hutt Leader: “Key favoured wiping fringe benefit tax on companies that pay health insurance for employees.” That was reported in the local newspaper the Upper Hutt Leader with his photo along with a photo of another MP. Guess who? Take a wild guess: Chris Bishop who had got up and ranted and raved against the introduction of the bill.What a bunch of double-talking serial flip-floppers. There would be wide economic benefits for the economy if employers were encouraged to participate more in the health of their workers. The cost-benefit analysis speaks for itself: higher workplace participation in health insurance would result in shorter sick days and getting workers back to work earlier and if more people retained health insurance it would allow wider allocation of public health spending and shorter waiting lists to the balance of New Zealanders.Finally our 25 percent SuperGold insurance rebate—why guess who also supported that at one stage? Well if you go to the 2008 National Party manifesto there it is. Yes 30 percent—30 percent. There is plenty of pre-sale like before the election of 2008—lots of pre-sales talk no after-sales service. In fact you have just got walking talking hypocrisy posing as an opposition.The Government’s enraged rhetoric against the Affordable Healthcare Bill indicates that this bill must have the National Government worried. If health Minister Jonathan Coleman should come down and speak on this which he did he at least could actually read the bill and compare it with National’s own policies which he did not and not make himself look stupid. We expect more of him—he is a doctor for goodness’ sake. That is why I always admired the previous MP for Hunua. He was a standout doctor a good man. He represented the people of Hunua not just his own little mates.The last thing is that this bill will free up public health services and short-circuit surgery lists for the chronically sick the disadvantaged manual workers around this country and the poor. God knows that under this Government they desperately need it.