Ryall Tony: Address in Reply 
Ryall Tony: Address in Reply 
[Volume:652;Page:1067] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 That was a most interesting speech from the temporary deputy leader of the Labour Party Annette King. She failed to remind Parliament that she and Mr Goff were members of a Government that voted in 1987 to give Cabinet Ministers a tax reduction of $500 a week. Annette King voted to give herself a $500 tax cut in 1987—that is what she voted for for herself—but she does not want to tell that to New Zealanders. 
We are seeing the sad remnants of a once successful Government and those Labour members do not know where they are going. The National Government has been working hard on the issues that matter. The Labour Party has been busy issuing press releases from the cafes of Western Europe berating the new Government. Do members recall Mr Goff’s press release from early January saying that the Government should be on the job doing the business? Phil Goff said that from Adelaide South Australia. Then the next day Helen Clark issued a press release saying: “The Government’s not on the job.” She was speaking from a European ski field. What we have at the moment from the deputy leader of the Labour Party Annette King is yet more of the ridiculous cant and slogans that sustained Labour members in Government for a few years and she is now trying to get away with it in Opposition. 
New Zealand is facing serious economic challenges. Fortunately we now have a Government that is up to those challenges and is providing the leadership that New Zealand needs. As our Prime Minister told the House today New Zealand has the third-largest economic stimulus package in the Western World and that package is made up of tax cuts for hard-working New Zealanders to give them every incentive to get ahead and to keep the money that they are earning at a time when they need it. 
The Government has also announced a raft of measures to assist small and medium enterprises to weather the economic storms that are coming. One of those changes includes in my own portfolio of State services a requirement for Government departments to pay their bills on time if not early in order to assist the cash flow of small business. The Prime Minister also announced today that tomorrow there will be more announcements on infrastructure investment in New Zealand spanning not only State housing but roading and other projects that will be of interest to New Zealanders. On top of that this Government has a very strong focus on improving front-line services for New Zealanders. The response has been swift and clear. There are tax cuts a business package for small and medium sized enterprises investments in infrastructure and a Government commitment to focusing on front-line services. 
There are very difficult times ahead for this country and it is fortunate that we have a Prime Minister and a Minister of Finance who say that this is a problem that requires sensible long-term solutions in order to assist New Zealand in the way forward. I think that is very important. I do not think New Zealanders should listen to the failed deputy leader of the Labour Party when she talks as she does about an agenda that is not relevant to ordinary New Zealanders. Ordinary New Zealanders are worried about the future. They are worried about their hospitals they are worried about their schools and they are pleased that they have a Government that will deal with it. 
If we look at the problems that we have inherited in the New Zealand public health system we realise that the previous Government should hang its head in shame. Not only have we inherited a massively worsening financial situation in our district health boards but we have deficits growing by the day. The previous Government said that hospitals would record deficits of $110 million. We now know that it is probably much closer to $160 million—a 50 percent increase on what it told the country—and that is indeed very serious. 
But there is good news in the way that this Government is dealing with the health portfolio. Firstly we have secured the additional $750 million put aside for Vote Health despite the deteriorating financial conditions. Our health service is in a privileged position in that we have that money coming forward and it is our responsibility to make sure that it is spent in the best and most effective way in order to help New Zealanders with their front-line services. 
Secondly we have appointed a high-powered ministerial group which has been established with some of New Zealand’s best health and financial people that is aiming to assist the Government in its agenda of expanding the role of clinical leadership in the New Zealand public health system and giving a much greater say to doctors and nurses in the running of the New Zealand public health service and also in the role that they can play in assisting us to provide better quicker and more convenient care for New Zealanders. The ministerial group is also looking at areas of poor-quality spending on the bureaucracy that can be moved into providing additional front-line services. 
We have put a cap on the health bureaucracy and we have delivered on our pre-election commitments in order to ensure that publicly funded Herceptin is available to the women of New Zealand. As recently as last week I met with the chief executives from the three Auckland district health boards and we are rapidly commencing progress on building Auckland’s first elective surgery super-theatre complex to help the Government address the shortfall in elective surgery around the country. 
We have inherited an incredible number of vulnerable health services. Yesterday I met with representatives from the Royal New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I was alerted by them to the large number of rural and regional hospital services that are vulnerable because of the staffing crisis that the previous Government ignored. This Government is determined to deal with those issues in order to make sure that we have an opportunity to ensure that New Zealand’s public health services are maintained and improved. 
The Government’s focus on improving front-line services is also a part of the important work that other Ministers have been doing. The Minister of Education Anne Tolley in setting that cracking pace in bringing in legislated national standards in schools is providing the leadership that New Zealand parents are looking for. The Minister wants to ensure that we do have those national standards in our schools and doing this will send a strong message to the education sector and to parents that the Government gives strong priority to that policy. 
 The Government has also moved rapidly to advance its agenda in the law and order area. It has made changes to legislation brought before the previous Parliament and those changes will be made in the next few weeks as we advance through the rest of our legislative programme. These are things that matter to New Zealanders and they are the priorities of the new Government. 
Chris Auchinvole 
: Thank goodness! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Thank goodness because the previous Government had lost its way and its focus. In fact it was so fixated on winning the election that there were all sorts of things that it did not tell New Zealanders about. We already know that there were burgeoning deficits in the health system that the previous Government did not talk about. We know about the huge number of vulnerable services and workforce shortages that the previous Government did not want to talk about. 
As Mrs Wong has said the previous Government did not want to talk about the billion-dollar Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) liability that it kept covered up and did not tell New Zealanders about. We know that there is an investigation into how the Public Service and the previous Government dealt with that knowledge about the ACC liability and I think New Zealanders will be interested to see how the Public Finance Act was respected—or not—in the way that that was dealt with. 
I am proud to stand up in this House and support what the Prime Minister has been saying. I think he is providing New Zealanders with the leadership that they need at this difficult time. As Ms Bennett so appropriately said during question time today the Government cannot turn away the storm clouds of the economic crisis that are travelling towards our country and washing over our shores. However we can certainly blunt some of the worst impacts of that crisis for New Zealanders and their families. That is part of the package that the Government has been working on and will continue to deliver for New Zealanders and their families.