Coleman Jonathan: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: General Debate[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:647. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health):I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. What a great time to be a member of the National-led Government—back in Parliament for a third term with Prime Minister John Key showing strong leadership on the matters that make the most difference to New Zealand. Strong leadership was today demonstrated on security matters. Strong leadership on the economy on health on law and order and on education. It was what New Zealanders voted for and they are going to get it in spades this term.Meanwhile on the other side of the House you have got this gaggle of unemployable ne’er-do-wells. If any one of them could get a job I am sure they would not be here. They have not mounted one single successful attack on the Government in 4 weeks. Can anyone remember one question that we have been asked by that crowd—Jami-Lee Ross: Kevin Hague.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: —apart from Kevin Hague’s question? None at all. They are totally lost because they are immersed in a re-run of “Labour Survivor 2013”. You will remember that series from last year. Well the one good guy in that got voted on to the island by us one of them got voted out of the caucus by them and then I think there is one left. Grant Robertson was skipping merrily down the aisle with political girlfriend Jacinda Ardern seeing the victory tape in sight when out of the blue came Andrew Little the angry man from Taranaki just fresh from increasing Jonathan Young’s majority to record levels twice in a row. He now thinks he is the man to the lead the Labour Party to victory. Then of course you have got Nanaia Mahuta providing the light-hearted comedy moments in the background. It is all bad over there.Then you turn to the other side there. You have got the Green Party. Well you have seen what those members are making in terms of a contribution to the House. Kevin Hague—32 questions on Katherine Rich; none on any health matters that make a difference to New Zealanders. The only thing the Green Party has done in health is suggest that we send homeopaths to West Africa to cure Ebola. Those people are off the planet and completely bonkers and the people of New Zealand notice it. Meanwhile we are getting on with the job.I can tell you that with my new responsibilities as Minister of Health it has been very interesting going around those 20 district health boards. This is fundamentally a different health system from when Mrs King was running it. When Mrs King was in charge they had patients lying on trolleys under harsh fluorescent lighting for 24 hours without getting their operations and without getting their treatment. Mrs King was sending patients to Australia for cancer care. Under Mrs King and then the man from Dunedin Mr Hodgson they were kicking people off waiting lists. But the one thing I can tell you about Mrs King is watch where she is sitting because she is always sitting beside the leader in waiting. If you look way back to when they rolled Mike Moore she was there. When they had the barbecue at Phil Goff’s house she was there. When they put Shearer in she was there. She was there with Phil Goff as well. So I am very interested to see who she is going to be backing because where Annette King goes that is where the Labour leadership ends up.But what I can also tell you about the health system is you go around the doctors the nurses and the lab technicians and they are energised. They are up for the challenge. They are thrilled that we are delivering 44000 extra operations every year. They are thrilled that actually we have set those health targets. Under Labour there were no targets; there were just strategies for Africa. No one was doing anything. All the doctors were going to Australia. No one was getting their operations. Under us we have raised the immunisation rates. We are tackling rheumatic fever. We are really focusing on those matters that make a difference to access to quality health care for New Zealanders and it is working. The morbidity and mortality statistics are improving. We are getting more care out into primary care. We are actually doing a great job in improving our children’s health. We go around our electorates and people are telling us they are happy with the health system. My predecessor did an excellent job but we are going to build on that.In this election just gone we put another $50 million into joint and bone pain. We are going to be rolling out free GP visits for under-13s. That is a massive achievement. It cuts the ground out from under Labour. Labour will never match that. People are saying: “Look we used to vote for Labour but you guys understand what we’re on about. We want our kids to be able to get the care they need. We want our kids to be in decent schools where we get decent reporting on how they’re doing. We want to know the streets are safe.” There is record low crime—the lowest since 1978. And do you know what we heard yesterday? Unemployment is down to 5.4 percent. This is a National Government delivering for New Zealanders. It is all good.