Barclay Todd: General DebateText is subject to correctionBarclay Todd: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4500. Text is subject to correction.]TODD BARCLAY (National—Clutha-Southland):Thank you for the ability to make a contribution to this general debate. I just want to make one remark before I start and that is for the Opposition members who wanted to have a snap debate on an issue as important as the Minister of Health’s decision to put a commissioner into the Southern District Health Board. The Opposition has not really made much of a mention of that issue over the last hour or so so I thought I would start off my contribution by just clarifying a few points that were raised. Firstly with regard to the Southern District Health Board I think I would like to congratulate the Minister on taking this decision. I know it is about the third time in the past 3 decades a decision like this has been taken. It is not taken on a light basis. I think that it has been from what I have heard from my constituents welcomed by the community particularly the rural health centres—Dr David Clark: How about the cuts in the member’s electorate? Are they welcomed?TODD BARCLAY: Actually while we are talking about cuts the total funding to the Southern District Health Board is at a level of about $852 million. There has been an increase of $134 million over the last 7 years including $15 million last year. There are 66 more doctors 195 more nurses and 2557 more elective surgeries—a 30 percent increase since 2008. So while we are talking about the data it is looking pretty good from this side.But I would just like to reinforce the point that health is a sensitive topic and it is something on top of the mind for everybody. I think that our community certainly would like to reinforce the support behind the Government and the Minister of Health in particular for taking this step. I would like to offer my personal optimism for Southland and Otago and the confidence that I have on behalf of my electorate for Kathy Grant and her team and I look forward to working with her in the near future. It is a project that she has willingly taken on board that will not be a short-term fix but she is more than qualified from all that I have heard of her expertise and background to lead this through.Seguing into the purpose of my speech: the Better Public Services which are a key feature of this Government’s policies across the Public Service are around actually putting people at the centre of policies and at the centre of the outcomes of public departments. That is actually a key feature of what the Minister of Health has done in this decision that he has announced today unlike the Labour Party which was more focused on making sure that Government departments kept getting more money each year with no real delivery in outcome. An example I will use is education. Over the 9 years when Labour was in Government it almost doubled spending on education with no real gain in achievement. We have increased spending in education by about 45 percent. The achievement rates right from early childhood education participation to national standards participation to high school National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) levels 1 2 and 3 are going up and up each year. It is through the remarkable contributions of Cabinet and particularly Ministers working across the social sector portfolios—Chris Bishop: Hekia Parata.TODD BARCLAY: The Hon Hekia Parata the Hon Anne Tolley the Hon Nikki Kaye—these are real people who are looking across the Public Service and making a strong contribution for real New Zealanders.Just talking about the national standards data for NCEA level 2 in the latest data we have seen we have had an increase from 85.7 percent to 86.8 percent over the last year. Since 2010 we have seen NCEA level 2 participation rise by 7 percent.Dr David Clark: What about the TV screens? Where was Mr Bishop? Come on fess up. Play a continuous loop of him. He dropped the Minister in it.TODD BARCLAY: It is interesting that Mr Clark over there is still talking about Mr Bishop and not talking about the real issue at hand which is actually the Southern District Health Board and his constituents. I think if you would ask your constituents Mr Clark about the Government’s need to put in a commissioner they would be very supportive of it because they did not see those gains under Labour. They saw the former Labour Government muddling around with health and no real gains.This Government has increased elective surgeries and increased the number of doctors and the number of nurses—real tangible gains across the board. So our rural hospitals are in good heart. They are led by capable boards. They are led by capable chief executives passionate medical staff and passionate volunteers as well across the board from our midwifery care right through to GPs and to other aspects of rural hospitals. That is why they are united in support of the steps this Government is taking to try to get some real results for the people of Southland and Otago. Again I would just like to reiterate my congratulations to the Minister on behalf of the people of Clutha-Southland. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.