Chadwick Steve: General Debate 
Chadwick Steve: General Debate 
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STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 We have heard about the five big issues from our colleagues today on this side of the House with some degree of pride. I just want to make a point of clarification for the House in answer to Tony Ryall on law and order and security in people’s homes as I am the member for Rotorua. Crime is at an all-time low in this country the lowest since 1982 but the figure for my district is not good enough. I give the assurance to the House that I am working on a daily basis to improve that figure with the Minister of Police and already there has been a response of two extra police coming into Rotorua to help us work together to get our crime rates to the same level of successful resolution as the rest of the country. Law and order is one of the issues. We have heard about Working for Families we have heard about the booming economic success unemployment levels and labour relations but I will talk directly on health. 
Health is one of the big issues for us in Government and Dr Brash as the Leader of the Opposition ditched Linda Scott who knew all about health. I am sure she tried to make health one of the five big issues for National and I congratulate the member on that. But what happened as a result of that? Dr Scott who was the one who knew about health lost her role as Opposition spokesperson on health and Judith Collins was given that role. She has to be coached by the two doctors in the National team and the whole of the country knows that. Health is still not one of the big ticket items for the Opposition as it goes into election next year and that is a disgrace. It shows incredibly weak leadership from the Leader of the Opposition. 
Health to us is a biggie. Now 3.7 million New Zealanders are enrolled in 77 primary health organisations around the country. We are fighting disease with the successful roll-out of the meningococcal vaccine. We are putting interventions in place when they are needed. In answer to Heather Roy the health spokesperson for ACT I point out that we have doubled the number of surgical operations for people needing knee and hip surgery and that is because we listened to the community. We did review the waiting times and there is now a much more transparent and robust system. We acted on it. What is more we are making access to health more affordable for New Zealanders and 2 million New Zealanders are now really enjoying being able to go to their doctor and their health practitioner more cheaply. 
What else are we doing? I want to talk today about accident compensation. We brought in the Code of ACC Claimants’ Rights in 2003. We put $35.5 million into accident compensation to boost treatment for injuries and we are bringing in a new accident compensation bill that looks at treatment of injuries. I have to say that senior medical specialists have said that this new legislation provides an environment in which doctors can discuss mistakes without fear of recrimination which ultimately insures against further misadventures. That is a good Government. 
That brings me to the current position of National’s health spokesperson on the Care of Children Bill. Her position on that bill showed me everything about her complete lack of understanding and ignorance on how doctors work in this environment. She failed to listen to entreaties from the medical professionals themselves who understand are caring and practical understand about a code of ethics that drives their practice and understand about a code of conduct. It is so naive to have a health spokesperson who undermines that very position of trust and the valuing of clinicians that we in this Government are working so determinedly on in order to make the health environment more open more transparent and less vulnerable to mistakes. 
I am amazed by the action of Judith Collins with her two amendments and as she spoke during the debate she squawked away. Fancy saying that doctors cannot make a clinical assessment about a young girl’s condition without involving that girl’s parents! These are the most vulnerable women in our society—the most vulnerable. How undermining and demeaning it is for doctors to hear the Opposition spokesperson on health say that they do not care and they do not know what they are doing.