King AnnetteGENERAL DEBATEHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): I move That the House take note of miscellaneous business. A former United States Vice-President once said: The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life the children; those who are in the twilight of life the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life the sick the needy and the [disabled]." So let us put aside this Government's bluster bravado and bull and look at how this Government is treating those who are in the dawn the twilight and the shadow of their life. I want to put to this House that this Government will fail that moral test. That moral test is just as relevant today as it was many years ago and I say that this Government is failing that moral test in the provision of affordable accessible and timely health services. It is failing children and young people the elderly and the sick and disabled. A measure of that moral failure is Trixie Cottingham. Trixie Cottingham who is 96 years old is living at home like many of our old folks do. She is surviving on 1½ hours of home help a week to keep her in her home. She cannot bend over like she used to be able to and so she finds vacuuming and hanging out the washing a little harder. So with 1½ hours of home help a week she is staying in her own home. But she received a letter from a district health board (DHB) that told her—it was a very callous heartless letter and it was sent out to hundreds of other people—that she was going to lose her 1½ hours of home help a week unless she also needed to have personal health services. Personal health services are for being showered or bathed. She does not need to be showered or bathed. She still has her dignity. She still has her independence. She does not need someone coming in to wash her bottom—she can do it herself. And you have now got older people labelling it the stripping policy because they have to get home help by stripping off because that is the only way that they are now eligible. I have to say that is deplorable. That is moral failure to our older New Zealanders. It is 1½ hours a week. Do you know what that costs at the minimum wage? It costs $22.80 a week to keep Trixie Cottingham in her own home and the DHBs want to cut that because they are going to save money. Why are they doing it? Ask the question: why are they doing it? It is because the same DHBs that are doing it are running deficits. They are running deficits. Whanganui District Health Board MidCentral District Health Board—we are looking at this happening around New Zealand in many DHBs. They save money on our poor old vulnerable New Zealanders. Grant Robertson: Shameful.Hon ANNETTE KING: It is shameful. Another measure of this Government's moral failure is a letter I got 2 days ago from a 31-year-old woman with a young baby. She has a very rare cataract—most unusual in someone so young. She was told she does not qualify for elective surgery in the public health system. She is losing her sight. Her husband wrote to me and said: "I was told: 'Pay $4000 and you can have it done in the private system but you're not going to get it done in the public system.' " Do you know what? We now know that 30 New Zealanders are threatened with blindness because they did not get any follow-up treatment. They got the first specialist assessment—that is measured; the Minister crows about that—but they got no follow-up service for the treatment that they needed. A third measure of this Government's moral failure is Isla Forbes who ended up with very severe bronchitis because she could not afford to go to her GP because the cost has gone from $29 under Labour to over $40 under this Government because it has not put the funding in. That is a measure of the failure—the moral failure—of this Government to provide health services to New Zealanders when they need it. There is $250 million missing out of the primary health budget because the Government has not adjusted it to ensure New Zealanders can afford to go to their GP. A measure of this Government's failure has been access to mental health services and it has been access to disability services. I need much longer Mr Speaker to go through the moral failure of this Government when it comes to health for those who are needy those who are disabled those who are young and those who are old."