Stewart Barbara: Budget DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStewart Barbara: Budget Debate[Sitting date: 27 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:4061. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]BARBARA STEWART (NZ First): In New Zealand First we have made our position on the 2015 Budget very clear: we see red we see red we see red. But it is not just the books that are in the red. Basically the vision of the Government is in the red. It is not forward-looking in any way.Basically the Budget has been a missed opportunity to invest in long-term solutions and prevention. We need to reduce further demands on our health care system down the road. We know that New Zealand is on the verge of a great population shift and that will mean a change in the demands on our health care system. We know that the over-65 population is set to double to 1.2 million people over 20 years. Unless this Government shows that it has a plan for trying to manage this the whole situation is going to become totally unmanageable.Our over-65s deserve to be cared for with dignity and they need appropriate conditions in which to live out their lives with some sort of dignity and pride. Without some sort of action in aged care this sector will become unsustainable. Without investment there will be staffing shortages. We know that the aged-care workforce is struggling to try to recruit and retain quality staff because the work is just too hard too heavy for the miserable pay that they receive.In Budget 2015 there is absolutely nothing for the aged-care workers. Aged-care workers will be seeing red but it is not only them because every other New Zealander who is looking ahead to their years aged 65-plus—people in their 40s and 50s—should be seeing red as well. What is going to be there for them? And all of this because of the Government’s inaction today.The coming crisis will not be just in the aged-care sector; it will also be in the demand for surgery. Although we appreciate that extra money was made available for surgery the demand is not going to be met by that extra money. There will be longer waiting lists and we know that the nurses and doctors are in panic mode because of course there was nothing in the Budget to ensure that more nurses and doctors are recruited and retained as well. So we have higher demands on the waiting list and a shortfall in what can be offered.Health professionals tell us that the sector is absolutely devastated. It is underfunded and they are the ones who see the result of underspending. So of course they are also seeing red seeing red. And of course we just have to look to the Southern District Health Board—it has a deficit of $17.8 million. The funding for Ōāmaru Hospital has been cut by 5 percent for next year. Dunstan Hospital in Central Otago is set for a $1 million shortfall in funding with predictions of closed hospital wards a lack of staff and service reductions. So all of those locals are going to face a long trip to Christchurch to get what they need.We once ran a health system that was world leading. Today it has been weakened beyond compare and everyone is just seeing red. It does not need to be this way. The answer is simple: invest some money now to save some lives with further money further along the road. The extent of missed opportunity within this Budget to do that is evidenced by the bowel cancer screening programme. We know that bowel cancer is a terrible disease that kills 1200 New Zealanders per annum and of course there is nothing in the Budget for this screening programme. We saw an extension of the very successful Waitematā bowel cancer screening programme but there was nothing for the rest of New Zealand. Is this an example of what we are to see—health by postcode? We really hope not and we are seeing red over that. Thank you.