Hutchison Paul: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Estimates Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:656;Page:5520] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
: 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this important estimates debate. The John Key - led National Government can be absolutely justifiably proud of these estimates in the way that this Government has regarded health as a priority and cemented in funding of $3 billion over the next 4 years. That is an absolutely clear example of how the National Government has regarded health as a priority and stuck to its election commitments. 
We have just heard a rant from the Hon Ruth Dyson. There is something I will never forget prior to my coming into this Parliament and that is the spectre of none other than a former health Minister the Hon Annette King saying that it was criminal to have a waiting list of 89000 people. That was before the dismal legacy of 9 years of the previous Labour Government. She said that a waiting list of 89000 was criminal yet waiting lists almost doubled under Labour. The lists almost doubled and when they got as large as that Labour scurrilously culled them by devious methods thinking that it could fool the people of New Zealand. However that certainly did not happen. 
The legacy of the Labour Government in health is even worse because we all know that it spent and it squandered. It spent more and it squandered more and it built up a bureaucracy that enmeshed it in an ever-increasing tangle of inefficiency. The work that has been done on health productivity clearly showed that under Labour there was minimal or no growth in productivity. Labour’s legacy is dismal and it is inappropriate for the Hon Ruth Dyson to suggest that the National Government has not committed itself to efficiency in the area of health and to prioritising health services to ordinary New Zealanders as being absolutely important. 
There is a tremendous amount of good news when it comes to the health sector and I want to speak for a moment or two about some of the areas that have not been talked about so often that were announced in these estimates. First of all I refer to the maternity area which is an area that in many respects was neglected under the previous Labour Government. There is $40 million extra in resources for increased birth rates and $38.5 million for longer stays in birthing facilities. For the last 10 years women up and down the country have said to me that they were being forced out of hospital when they were not ready. There has been little choice for women who desperately want to stay in hospital or at least to have the choice to stay in so the National Government has committed to an extra $38.5 million in that area. 
Then in terms of support services for parents there is $14 million for a 24/7 PlunketLine telephone advice service and for other advisory and information services to support the Well Child Framework. Who was it who stopped PlunketLine? It was none other than the previous Labour Government. It is an iconic service that New Zealanders trust and none other than the previous Government cut its funding. So it is great that the new National Government has restored funding for PlunketLine. 
There is also funding of $9.9 million for an extra visit to the general practitioner or lead maternity carer in each trimester for mothers or babies at risk. This is a classic example of putting in money where it is desperately needed to ensure that early intervention takes place. If ever there was a basic law in obstetrics it is to ensure that early intervention is secured.