Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): I really don't know where to begin. I thought I was going to be the one member of this side of the House that had to come down to the House and at least give the Government some credit—some credit—for their increases in Vote Health because boy they talked a good game.The Minister of Finance called this the rebuilding Budget". The Leader of the Opposition quite rightly said "Rebuilding what?" Well I certainly know what they're not rebuilding. It's not Dunedin Hospital and it's not going to be for a very long time. The Minister of Health who is from the electorate the hospital is in petitioned this Parliament last year imploring the previous Government to start the build before the last election. He has official documents that say they were prepared to put stakes in the ground this year ahead of their resource consent. There we go; Mr McClay has it. [Member holds up a sketch] It's designed; let's get on with it.What do we have? At least I thought they were going to bring the building back on to the balance sheet. They decided they didn't want a public-private partnership. They were going to put a $1.4 billion asset on the balance sheet. But when? So I ask: if this is rebuilding then I'd hate to see it if they weren't doing that. The really disappointing thing about Vote Health is that we were all expecting a really big bump in the appropriation. Remember those big descriptions of how the previous Government had failed to fund health? And the gap was getting wider and wider and wider.At least in the first year there should have been some attempt to close the gap. Do you know what happened to the gap? It got wider. By their own definition they have underfunded health. Unbelievable! I could not believe my eyes. I spent 40 minutes looking through the Budget. Surely there had to be something there—a line that was hiding something. Not a single thing. Let me just go through a few of the lines. [Interruption] Here he is. The "Rebuild Minister" said "nobody in Dunedin". Nobody will be calling that Minister the "Rebuild Minister".Last year the district health boards (DHBs) got $439 million for cost pressures. That's really just to keep the lights on. That was a 4.2 percent increase in their appropriation from the previous year. This year the increase is 4.1 percent. The disappointing thing about that is that 10 of the 20 DHBs are getting a smaller percentage increase than they got last year.Let me go through it because the members whose constituencies are near these DHBs will be interested to know that sadly for Simon Bridges the Bay of Plenty District Health Board Canterbury District Health Board Capital and Coast District Health Board Lakes District Health Board South Canterbury District Health Board Tairāwhiti District Health Board Taranaki District Health Board Waikato District Health Board Waitematā District Health Board and Whanganui District Health Board are all getting a smaller percentage increase than the previous National Government gave them.So I think to myself: there must be something else in here. There must be something buried in the Budget. Remember the $100 million of reprioritised mental health spending? Those great initiatives that the previous Government came out and said "This is going to make a real difference to people's lives."—mostly young men and women in this country with some great initiatives that the previous Government introduced and they were going to reprioritise it. Where is it? Tumbleweed—it's gone. I will grant that they have done some. They have put the mental health resource into Canterbury schools—that's $25 million. They did meet their confidence and supply commitment to the Green Party to put in money for free counselling for under 25s—that's about the only coalition commitment they've met. There's another $65 million that's disappeared out of mental health and has not come back.Take Pharmac funding. We're all looking aghast at a $200 million hole in the Budget for drug funding. Alzheimer's New Zealand; the rare disorders group that keeps asking Dr Clark for a meeting—just a meeting. All they want to do is put their case. Doors are closed in the Beehive to the rare disorders group. And what did they say? Well they've reprioritised that to the district health boards. That's really interesting because if one goes through the individual DHB lines there's a plus line and a minus line. There isn't a single extra dollar in the individual DHBs for the drug funding that they took off Pharmac—give with one hand take away with another.GP visit funding—now we knew there would be a massive backdown on the commitment that they made in the fiscal plan and in the Speech from the Throne. Every New Zealander was going to get a $10 reduction in their GP fees. And guess what we heard today? They fought a lot of the National Party's policy that we campaigned on last year and they've implemented it. They are going to increase the number of people who are eligible for community services cards who actually get it and they're going to reduce the fees. So if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery I'm flattered.But how on earth are you going to appropriate the $74 million they've put in for that? Goodness only knows. The components of the appropriations say this: "Very Low Cost Access: budget not yet known. Care Plus: budget not yet known. Free under-13s: budget not yet known. System level measures: budget not yet known. Other: not yet known." It's a finger in the air; they don't know what they're going to do for GP fees reduction.Now I want to congratulate the midwives for their success—the one group in the country that actually had a bit of success out of this Government because Dr Clark was terrified—terrified—of what would happen if he went back to Dunedin without that. So it's an 8.9 percent bump—sounds pretty good. Sound pretty good. Well done to the midwives. They deserve it; we all think that. But it's flatlined over four years and unless they get more than that that will constitute a 2.2 percent increase in midwifery funding per year for the next four years. Is that going to be enough to stop those midwives going across to Australia or leaving the profession altogether?And I ask the Government this: what is the point—what is the point—of spending $2.8 billion on fees-free for tertiary students if our doctors our nurses and our midwives are going to take off on graduation or don't see a future in the profession? They must be funded. Dr Clark talked big—talked big in Opposition. This is anaemic. This is an absolute disgrace. Nobody can look at the vote on health and say this is anything like the tub-thumping rhetoric that we heard from Labour in Opposition. Labour in Government—high expectations—[Interruption] ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Order! Just to remind the member.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: —nothing here not even a hidden appropriation for in-between Budget contingencies; can't find it in Vote Finance. This is it—a 4.1 percent increase that'll be barely enough for our DHBs to keep the lights on let alone the expectations that that Minister has raised with every doctor every nurse every midwife and every allied health professional in the country. They deserved better and the Minister knows it.What about the other agreements in health according to the coalition agreement? Three hundred GP training places—maybe it's here maybe it's not. Where are the 300 GP training places or is that also a broken promise Minister? Where are in the coalition agreement—and Mr Mark will be very interested in this one I'm sure—the free annual health and eye checks for seniors that Labour and New Zealand First signed up to only six months ago? Tumbleweed. Not there. What about extending the breast screening programme to senior women in New Zealand up to the age of 74? Can't find it. I'd really like the Minister to point it out to me because there's very very little here—$3.9 billion was the number the National Government invested last year in health over four years; this year: $3.2 billion.But the biggest hunt of all for me is the hunt for Dunedin Hospital. We've heard a lot about Dunedin Hospital down my way. I'd run a gauntlet and a Labour Party campaign to get ahead of the decision the previous Government made to commit to three things: whatever Dunedin Hospital needed it would get; the medical school wasn't going anywhere; and tertiary services would be maintained—unequivocal. They said they will do better they will do it quicker they will do it on the balance sheet—Hon Dr David Clark: That's right—and we will.Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: "And we will"—well there's a message for the Minister: platitudes and promises don't provide hospitals. Platitudes and promises don't pay the bills for the nurses the midwives and the allied health professionals. This is the most disappointing part of an incredibly disappointing Budget. Even I thought this was going to be better—that the gap might close a little bit; not a jot and they need to explain to New Zealanders why."