Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): Yesterday an open letter was presented to MPs on the steps of Parliament and we saw very quickly in the response from the Government just how arrogant and out of touch it has become. That was personified in the person of Jonathan Coleman the Minister of Health who today again ducked and dived and avoided answering questions about the experiences of people within New Zealand's mental health system. He refused to answer questions that were plain by referring to a previous answer where he said that his target was somebody who had done the compiling of the material and not the actual material itself. When asked about the specifics of that material—the experience of underfunding in the health system under-resourcing staff stretched and people getting very close to taking their own lives—he was silent. He was silent on those matters.I think that speaks to his inability to wrestle with the issue that New Zealand is facing right now and that is a 60 percent increase—a 60 percent increase—in people accessing mental health services in the last decade. The system is creaking at the seams. The police are being called into wards. Senior nurses are leaving the service of those acute psychiatric units. People in the community are feeling abandoned. That is the world we are living in and the Government does not seem to have a response and when it does have one it is flippant—it is to dismiss as left-wing anti-Government activists those who bring their concerns to Parliament. That is what the Minister said. He dismissed and diminished the experience of those people by dismissing and diminishing the way in which those experiences were brought to this Parliament for us all to see.The requests in that report are not unreasonable; they are for an urgent funding increase for mental health. We know this Government has underfunded the health sector by $1.7 billion over the last 6 years and that is a conservative estimate using Treasury's own figures by independent research agency Infometrics. It discerned that when you look into health inflation a growing population and an ageing demographic just to stand still the health system would have needed another $1.7 billion over the last 6 years. So in that situation where mental health is often the poor cousin its funding has been starved. We understand that mental health funding has gone up around 28 percent over that period while the need has gone up 60 percent. You do not need to be a mathematician to work out that that is a shortfall and that people will fall through the cracks and lived lives will be hit hard by the inability to cope and by the lack of support for those across New Zealand who are facing difficult situations and who are facing the challenges that come with mental health issues.I think we would have also seen a different response if Labour had been in Government because Labour is a party that cares about primary health that cares about people's lived experiences in the community and that seeks to support people with early intervention at a mild to moderate level in the mental health spectrum to make sure that people receive the need early. That is what we will be doing as a party and we will be soon be announcing the ways in which we are going to make that a more real experience—the ways in which fresh thinking can be applied to these issues to make sure that New Zealanders can be confident that their mental health system is able to respond to the need that is out there and that is growing.I know that Andrew Little would have done a different thing if one of the members of his Cabinet had criticised the people who delivered the message—he would have pulled them into line. But we have with Bill English someone who has a failure of leadership. He is content to see that thing slide. He is content to let Jonathan Coleman stew in his own juices. He is not providing the leadership required to fix the sector and to address the issues—the independent oversight that has been called for the additional funding that has been called for and the review that is urgently needed to make sure that our mental health system is fit for purpose and is there to support the New Zealanders who need it most in their time of need.Labour will be there for those people in a way that this Government has never been. So I would ask members of this House to consider whether in this upcoming Budget the Government could not be a little more generous in supporting those people who need it most in our society because I think a Government is best judged by how it treats the most vulnerable amongst us.