Clark DavidDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): Well that member Andrew Bayly obviously had something inspiring over the dinner break and we could hear the booming start. But he missed a few points and I want to draw attention to a few of those before we get too far in. First of all he was talking about his constituents getting in their cars at 6 a.m. The bit he omitted to tell you was that they have work at 10 a.m. It takes them 4 hours to get there in the current gridlock that his Government has overseen. Now I used to live in the area that he represents so I speak from experience. It certainly is a lot more clogged up than it used to be and that member knows it. And I do not think that when he pours scorn on the light rail policy announced by the Labour Party over the weekend that he has actually talked to any constituents about it—he certainly did not reference any specifically—because the people I have heard from are pretty jolly excited about it. Finally there is a proper plan to get Auckland moving again. These guys are still crowing about Helen Clark's Waterview tunnel like they invented it. That is the only major infrastructure thing they have put in place in their time and they did not even start it themselves.There are quite a few things I have to touch on that the previous speaker touched upon. He talked about delivering for all New Zealanders because he has not got the memo yet that the all" has dropped out of National's slogan because it cannot justify it any more. He talked about homeownership becoming more affordable without saying that we have got the lowest homeownership rates in New Zealand since 1951. The only affordable housing plan National seems to have is getting sponsorship from Subaru and Toyota because people are living in cars now.That member knows it. He knows the situation in Auckland; he lives there. I do not believe he has not seen it but he gets up in front of this House and seems to expect us to believe that National has a plan when it has been sitting there for 9 years and has presided over this mess. Its members have watched real wages drop—and they have; real wages have dropped—and we have still got 90000 kids not in employment education or training.That is why we need a change of Government. That is why we need a Labour-led Government which will actually do something about these issues and will make real progress to make sure that the economy is shared with everybody. It will make sure there is a shared prosperity so that all New Zealanders can have the benefits of a good public education and a good public health system so that everybody can make the most of their talents and so everybody can have the opportunity to get ahead not just those who have parents with deep pockets or who are born into good fortune which we are increasingly seeing defining the prospects of New Zealanders.On this side of the House we have always stood for the provision of high-quality access to affordable healthcare—sorry affordable access to high-quality healthcare as well. I want to say that that is something I would like to talk a little bit about in my contribution. In recent days we have seen the consequences of the underfunding in this Budget here that we have been debating. We know for a fact that district health boards (DHBs) needed about $530 million to meet cost pressures but in this Budget they got just $439 million meaning they slipped yet further behind.An independent research firm Infometrics has had a close look at the Treasury data and it has discerned that since 2009 $2.3 billion—$2.3 billion—has been stripped out of the health system by these people opposite and that is just the extra money that would have been required to deliver the same level of health services. We know that it is getting harder to access scans for cancer and the like. We know that it is getting harder to get hip replacements and knee replacements. We know it is getting harder to get cataract surgery. Let us take an example from down my way. In the Southern DHB we have had people go blind waiting for cataract surgery. We have had people go blind. We have had open letters in recent days written to the Minister—orthopaedic surgeons saying a third of people who should be getting care are currently not and that the incentive sets it up for them to refer those people back to their GPs who ping them backwards and forwards so they do not get penalised for having a waiting list under this Government's exclusive focus on short-term targets.We know that the elective target is being propped up by eye injections and skin lesion removals many of which could be done in GP practices more cheaply. But no they have got to meet their targets or they get punished by this Government which is determined to build up statistics prop up statistics and make itself look good when it is failing to deliver healthcare for all New Zealanders which it ought to be doing which any decent Government would do.Well we on this side of the House are the only party in this Parliament that voted against the Budget package. I am going to repeat that. We are the only party in this Parliament that voted against the Budget package. And we did that because in good conscience we could not do another tax cut package in election year targeted at the wealthy like those members do on that side of the House. That was not what we think the priority is for most New Zealanders. Tax cuts for the wealthy are always the priority for those members on that side of the House. A thousand bucks a year for every MP in this Parliament—we do not think that is the priority. We think the priority is quality healthcare for New Zealanders. And so we have promised that we will put $8 billion more into health over the next 4 years than those people on that side of the House because that is where the money is really needed right now. Parents are struggling to pay school fees. We are going to put $4 billion more into education. These are the priorities of New Zealanders not tax cuts that benefit the MPs sitting in this Parliament.That is what National would have you believe—that tax cuts for people earning what MPs earn or what Ministers earn is the priority. We in Labour do not believe that. We actually think we need a better future for everybody where we promote those basics of good public healthcare and good public education.The other thing I want to mention is not just that extra money. The other thing is that that money needs to be well spent. Labour understands the importance of spending public investment money well. We have made sure that we have run a good ship when in Government. I have not been in a previous Labour Government but we know from talking to people in the health sector that Labour has made the real advances. The Minister opposite Jonathan Coleman in the Budget got the figures wrong. For the first time as far as I am aware in New Zealand history the Minister on that side of the House got the health budget wrong. He got the budget wrong.Hon Ruth Dyson: And blamed someone else. Dr DAVID CLARK: He blamed someone else. He always blames someone else. And then his director-general phoned around and told DHBs they could keep the money. Where I am from they got told 2 weeks out from the start of the financial year that they were going to have $5.7 million recalled. The equivalent of an additional 120 nurses was taken out of the Southern DHB 2 months—sorry 2 months oh if only; 2 weeks—before the financial year began.The DHBs in this country—many of them billion-dollar businesses—did not have a budget or plan in place 3 weeks into the financial year. How many billion-dollar industries do not have that? This is basic stuff. That is the mismanagement on that side of the House. It has truly lost touch. It is no longer getting the basics right and that is harming the DHBs.The DHBs are speaking out. They know there is poor management. They know that the Minister is disinterested in the sector and the Minister is denying there is an issue. He refused in this House today to apologise for his remarks when he attacked staff at the Southern DHB who are speaking out about the shortage of funding and the shortage of care for people in the South. We know the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons recommends 3.2 full-time positions at Dunedin Hospital; it has been operating at 2.1 for I think nigh on a decade. These people have overseen that shortfall. It is 30 percent underfunded and under-resourced and people have been dying. People on that waiting list are facing death right now. Thank goodness Checkpoint is making an issue of this and local MPs have been raising the issue for some time. I want to acknowledge my colleague Clare Curran who has drawn attention to care shortfalls in the Southern DHB. I too have been doing it. And to those local staff who have spoken out and had the courage to challenge the Minister who maintains that everything is well—I think we need to see a whole lot better and we need to see it soon.A Labour Government will make sure that there is a timely rebuild of Dunedin Hospital if we get down to brass tacks in the South because in 2014 when this Government promised it would have a business case to Cabinet in 2014 people believed it. Now it is saying it is going to be mid-2018. The hospital rebuild in Dunedin is now further away than it was before the last election. We will see some glossy pamphlets I am sure before the election day but the people in the South have become cynical because that side of the House has underfunded health for so long.We are not promising the tax cut bribe that National is promising. Instead we are going to fund decent healthcare to make sure there is affordable access to quality healthcare for every New Zealander. Thank you."