Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Ryall Tony: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:631;Page:2910] 
10.  
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does she stand by her statement “What I’m satisfied by is that PlunketLine in terms of calls picked up was not providing a good service”; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes. As I told the member last week the rate of calls not picked up by Plunket was high at 87.3 percent in the year ended December 2005. Plunket is not on track to answer the number of calls specified in its subcontract with McKesson. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why should the public believe a single word this Prime Minister says when the Ministry of Health’s Dr Pat Tuohy has publicly stated that PlunketLine did not lose its contract because of the unanswered call rate; what is the real reason that her Government has abandoned PlunketLine? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am sure the Minister of Health would be quite happy to give the member a briefing on the very thorough process that was followed to evaluate the PlunketLine contract. I understand that one of the critical issues is that the technology and processes that Plunket tendered on the basis of were not considered to be up to scratch. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Why should New Zealanders believe a single word this Prime Minister says about PlunketLine; who is right: the highly respected iconic Plunket service which has been caring for New Zealand kids for 100 years and which refutes the Prime Minister’s claim that PlunketLine was offered additional funding or the Prime Minister who in the previous answer has just changed her story yet again? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The iconic service referred to which was not supported by National when it was in Government has indeed said that it was offered more money but that it did not like the conditions. Perhaps the member would like to know what the conditions were. They were conditions like PlunketLine being asked to add a recorded message along the lines of: “All our nurses are busy at present. Please hold the line if you would like to speak to a Plunket nurse or press now if your child is unwell and you would like to speak to a Healthline nurse.” That would have meant that PlunketLine nurses would be in a better position to answer the volume of Well Child calls as per their speciality and the service agreement. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is the Prime Minister the same Helen Clark who pledged: “Getting a good start [in life] is crucial to later success. My government will expand early intervention programmes. The first step will be to fund the Plunket Line service on a 24 hour a day seven days a week basis.” or is there a different Helen Clark who said that? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Yes and we did fund a Well Child service 24 hours a day and we will continue to fund a Well Child service 24 hours a day—something that would not be possible if the National Party was trying to fund $11 billion of tax cuts. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: Is she the same Helen Clark who said this is “a symptom of the crisis in health in this country. What could be more dreadful than to see the most basic service in this country well-child health-care abandoned by a Government that cares more about competition amongst services than continuity of quality Plunket services in our community?” 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I hardly see the funding of Plunket to the tune of about $34 million a year from the Government as abandoning anything. Our Government unlike the National Party is committed to funding a 24-hour Well Child service and we will do so. 
Jo Goodhew 
: Can the Prime Minister remember making this scathing statement about Jenny Shipley: “We have a Prime Minister who claims to be passionate about making life better for mothers and families but stands by while the Plunket telephone line collapses.”; and does she not realise the irony that those words now describe her? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Mrs Shipley and the National Party were not prepared to fund a 24-hour Well Child health service. The National Party now says that irrespective of the quality of the service money should be spent on Plunket’s specific one rather than funding one that can do the job. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: I seek leave to table two documents. One is a press release from the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society stating: “Plunket refutes offer of funding for PlunketLine”. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Hon Tony Ryall 
: The second is a document that shows that Plunket has cancelled the launch of its centenary celebrations at which the Prime Minister was to have been the guest speaker next week. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection.