Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Peters Winston: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:621;Page:16877] 
2.  
Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Has she still got confidence in the Minister of Health; if so why? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Yes because she is a hard-working and conscientious Minister. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: How can the Prime Minister possibly make that statement when almost 4000 people died whilst waiting for surgery and on surgery waiting lists in the last 3 years alone and when last year alone well over 1100 died when on hospital or surgery waiting lists; given that at the last Labour Party conference she and her colleagues got up and boasted of the great health services they were providing in this country are not those services at the cost of people in New Zealand dying unnecessarily? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: Most certainly not because the numbers of people coming through day-case surgery and inpatient surgery have risen quite substantially under this Government. 
Judith Collins 
: Does she believe that being hard-working and conscientious involves disrespecting a World War II veteran who has waited 4 years for his operation as Ms King did to Mr John Power last week then having the bare-faced cheek to write a letter wrongly blaming others for her shameful display in the House? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No disrespect will be shown to World War II veterans on my watch nor was any shown by the Minister. I myself was in the House. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Can she assure frail elderly New Zealanders who are living at home and totally dependent on home care that her Government will ensure that there are sufficient home-care workers to look after them properly over the Christmas period; if not why not? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I would certainly hope that those who are responsible with the devolution to district health boards for those contracts make sure of that. Of course as the Minister for Social Development and Employment has already said we have record low unemployment so in a number of areas where pay rates are low—and home-care workers is one—there are some issues. Over time the Government will need to grapple with the provision of further support for the skills development and wages of those workers. 
Deborah Coddington 
: How can she express confidence in a Minister of Health who in 1988 said that there being 96000 people on waiting lists was criminal and now there are 110000 people on waiting lists the number of people on waiting lists who have died has doubled under this Government and the number forced to give up waiting and go private has tripled; how many more people have to die or pay for their own operations for her to lose confidence in this Minister? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I can say that there are more day-case and inpatient surgery procedures being performed now than there were when the member made that statement—considerably more. 
Judy Turner 
: Does the Prime Minister have confidence that the Minister of Health has given sufficient consideration to the idea of establishing a contestable fund in order that both public and private health providers could tender to provide elective surgery so as to reduce waiting times given that last Wednesday her response to United Future’s question that she consider the proposal was a flat-out no; if not why not? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No the Government would not support a contestable fund. Our view is that the public health system can work and does work well. Where a district health board has more money for surgery than it can use to provide surgery from its own resources it may contract out some operations to the private sector but that should be the exception not the rule. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Will she take any responsibility whatsoever for a Minister of Health who has seen our cancer mortality rates become amongst the world’s worst with Ministry of Health figures indicating that 60 cancer patients waited more than the prescribed maximum of 4 weeks for radiation therapy in August alone putting their lives at risk; and when will she take responsibility for the fact that almost 4000 people have died early or unnecessarily while waiting for treatment when she has been the Prime Minister with that Minister of Health? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: What the Minister of Health will take a great deal of pride in is having been the first Minister of Health to ensure that a national Cancer Control Strategy has been developed for this country. Secondly she has taken responsibility for ensuring that the training of the numbers of people needed to provide radiography and radiology has actually increased quite dramatically. Thirdly it is fair to point out that one may be waiting for a cataract operation and be run over on the road; there are all sorts of reasons why people might not be alive when their number comes around for an operation. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Does her indication of confidence in the Minister demonstrate her belief that waiting times for radiation therapy of up to 11 weeks in the Waikato and 10 weeks in Wellington are acceptable or that the situation in Auckland where patients face up to 9 weeks’ wait which may or may not culminate in a trip to Australia for treatment is acceptable yes or no; and if she does not believe those waiting times to be acceptable why does she not hold somebody accountable including herself? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I am advised by the Minister that the waiting times have improved dramatically because she has been putting the resources in place. I also take some pride—given that we did not inherit sufficient provision—that this Government has fully paid all the expenses that people have incurred when in Australia where that was required. 
Judith Collins 
: I seek the leave of the House to table a letter from Annette King to Mr John Power in which she blamed noise in question time for her rude display; and that is despite our not being allowed to say anything during questions—a point that I got pulled up for before. 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I consider that the comment made was a direct reflection on you as Speaker and should be withdrawn and apologised for. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Let me say that there are people who were listening at the time who do not understand my rulings. While questions are being asked there will be silence because we are in a democracy and every member is entitled to ask a question in silence. I do not require silence during answers; if I did it would make my job very simple! As far as I am concerned I did not take that comment as a reflection on me but I will be listening very very carefully in the future. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House. 
Deborah Coddington 
: I seek leave to table figures released by the Health Information Service that show that the number of people who became deceased while on waiting lists has doubled. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is. 
Hon Annette King 
: I seek leave to table information from the Health Information Service that shows that the number of people treated electively has gone up from 68000 in 2001 to 114000 in 2004. The same information was given to ACT but it did not bother to use those figures. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that document. Is there any objection?  
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. If it is the same information I am quite happy to agree provided that the Government is prepared to allow the rest of the information to be tabled so that we can have a complete picture. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I want to know whether there is any objection to the tabling— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: I do object and now I am going to seek leave for the document that the Minister wanted to present to be tabled together with the document from the ACT party— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the member cannot do that. He can ask for permission to table— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: Yes I can. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Please be seated— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: No I can ask for leave to table those documents—most certainly. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member can ask for leave to table the document from the ACT party— 
Hon Richard Prebble 
: That is what I am doing. 
Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.