Peachey Allan: General Debate 
Peachey Allan: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8204] 
ALLAN PEACHEY (National—Tamaki) 
: 
 It is a privilege to rise in the House and to close the debate on behalf of the National Party which all New Zealanders now recognise is the Government-in-waiting. I must say however that it is quite hard to get motivated and speak when following what was probably one of the poorest speeches to be delivered in this House in a long time—particularly when the people of Auckland face such a critical issue as the one that landed on them yesterday. Before I turn to that subject though I would like to make reference to the speech made by the Hon Paul Swain and to say how disappointed I was with it. I know I am a humble backbencher who is normally hidden in the back corners of the House but he might at least have noted that I have had a haircut. All it will take is a bit of product and on Friday night I will be ready to rumble with the best of them. 
The Auckland High Court lab testing decision and how the Government is handling it is just one more example of the ineptitude of this Government and another example of Cabinet Ministers performing poorly. This mess has the potential to cost New Zealand taxpayers millions and millions of dollars in compensation and court costs. It is therefore of direct relevance to this House. One of the things that taxpayers do is to place their trust in Cabinet Ministers to protect their interests and protect their money. That trust has been clearly misplaced in this House this afternoon. What confidence can the people of Tamaki covered by the Auckland District Health Board now have that there will be diagnostic testing services available to them after 1 July? One-third of New Zealanders now have hanging over them the shadow of that uncertainty. 
If any member of this House has reason to take that personally it is myself. Although I will not enter into debating the merits of either side of the case I want to say that I like thousands of Aucklanders am incredibly grateful for the diagnostic testing the services of pathologists and the nurses that take the samples. I am grateful to them for the work they do. They do not deserve and Aucklanders do not deserve the uncertainty that now hangs over a very important part of the health provision. This Government has failed in one of its key tests and the Minister is behaving as though he has no idea what to do next. 
The Minister cannot escape responsibility for what has happened. In 2003 this Government made the decision to delegate responsibility for the letting of contracts for diagnostic services to the district health boards. At the very time when Aucklanders need the Minister to show leadership and to show there is a way forward he is floundering he is lost and he does not know what to do. Let me help the Minister. He has to do only one thing: to have the decency to resign. If that resignation is not forthcoming it will be just one more example of the “no one is responsible” approach that this Government takes to matters that are of vital importance to the lives of everyday New Zealanders. 
One has to ask whether Cabinet is undergoing systematic professional training in how to avoid ministerial responsibility. One would have to think so and it obviously working because Ministers do that so well. In fact when the term of this Government is over—and that is only months away—all it will have to show for its years in office is the fact that its members have set a standard for accepting ministerial responsibility that is well below the standard that New Zealanders expect. It is well below the standard that New Zealanders expect from the people elected to represent them in this House. 
One has to ask another question: has the Minister of Health simply been following the example of the Minister of Corrections?