Coleman JonathanHon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): Well we have just had two very contrasting speeches from two Labour member. We had Mrs King. Look she was an excellent Labour spokesperson. She talked about questions and surprises and the biggest question she will have had in the past year or so would actually be why the Labour Party members would stab her in the back and get rid of her. It has replaced her with the previous speaker the retired existential philosopher Dr David Clark. Dr Clark asked me why I query his facts and figures and why I queried them during the select committee hearing. I know Mrs King will be enjoying this because Mrs King revenge is a dish best eaten cold—and she is having a laugh at that now because David Clark is up there constantly giving stupid people a bad name with his daily utterances.In his latest effort yesterday in the House here he got up and told the House that on 25 July—so that was just 2 days ago—there were no intensive care unit (ICU) beds left in the South Island of New Zealand. That would be extremely concerning and that is a serious claim to make in the House—very concerning. So I went straight from here I rang up the officials and I said: Look David Clark—you know I think he's a credible member. He has made this claim." So they ran around and we had people all around New Zealand ringing up and trying to find out what was happening in the South Island. Within an hour we got the advice back. Much to my surprise do you know what? They had spare capacity in the South Island. They had beds for ICU in Canterbury in South Canterbury and on the West Coast.I know that David Clark would not make anything up—Hon Member: No you would think not.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: No well he would not make anything up. So it is clearly good old-fashioned sloppy Labour Party incompetence. All I would say is God defend New Zealand if Dr David Clark—the man who wanted to ban Google from New Zealand—ever gets to run the New Zealand health system.Look Mrs King was an excellent health spokesperson. I enjoyed the intellectual debate with her. She knew her subject. She was able to go out as David Clark said and engage with the public of New Zealand. She was great to work with. You know we had great collegial chats because she had a wealth of information and a lot of experience and yet David Clark—he struggles to find two neurons to run together to generate an electrical cerebral impulse. I mean you hear this guy's daily utterances—those members cannot seriously be serious about having him as their health spokesperson.Do you know what? They were out there last Saturday or Sunday—it was Andrew Little and David Clark. They said: "You know we're going to put an extra $2 billion into the health system. In our first year in Government we're going to pump in $856 million." But the existential philosopher had not done his homework because actually that was going to be less than this Government put in this year. We put in $888 million. So quite seriously you cannot be credible when you cannot be trusted to get up and make statements that the House can take at face value. I have to check everything this guy says and actually so does his leader because Andrew Little is not going to be seriously exposed and made a fool of by his health spokesperson again.Actually I have heard rumours of secret talks to bring Annette King back and I actually think that for the good of intellectual debate around health in New Zealand we need to get Annette back into the Chamber. The Labour Party needs her. I mean look we do not like debating against such a weak Opposition on a daily basis. We want people who are going to give us a run for our money. Annette King used to do this.But anyway on to the serious stuff of the Budget. This was a great Budget. We are at record levels of health expenditure—$16.8 billion and $3.9 billion over the next 4 years. What is that going to fund? It is going to be more doctors and nurses and more services across the country and you would struggle to find one single service out of the hundreds across New Zealand that has not improved over that time. We have got a great health system.Look next year Dr Clark should come along—he can come and carry the luggage—when we go to the World Health Organization because he needs to get out and get a wider perspective. He needs to talk to health Ministers from across the world. I am quite prepared to take him under my wing and actually introduce him to a few people because what they would tell him is that New Zealand has a fantastic health system. I think Dr Clark could make a positive contribution to the debate in New Zealand but really he has got to do a lot more reading and learn a lot more."