Cunliffe David: General Debate 
Cunliffe David: General Debate 
[Volume:643;Page:13097] 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Minister of Health) 
: 
 Newsflash! The  
New Zealand Herald  
is in campaign mode again. The press we are told to believe never has a view of its own never has a bias and never gets the facts wrong. The press has a crystal ball. It knows what a select committee is going to do to a bill before the committee has even reported back. The press remembers every detail of Nicky Hager’s book  
The Hollow Men 
. Yeah right! It has upheld the pillars of democracy against the sneaky pernicious campaign of the Exclusive Brethren. Yeah right! It fought vigorously against the rather more well-heeled and subtle pseudo-thinktank the Maxim Institute. Yeah right! 
It might come as a newsflash to the Opposition but the reason the Labour Government has won three elections in a row and is looking good for a fourth is that it cares about Kiwis and its actions show that it cares. This Labour-led Government looks after the old the young the sick the crippled and the unemployed with great gusto and it will keep on doing just that. Labour is following in the traditions of Mickey Savage Norm Kirk and yes Dick Seddon and is providing security for New Zealanders from the cradle to the grave. That is what Kiwis know about Labour and that is why they are going to have a Labour-led Government for the next 3 years. The little flowers of the Opposition are going to wilt away and a new generation of baby Tories will replace them at the helm. 
I will give members a few stats from the health portfolio. Here is concrete proof that even the  
New Zealand Herald  
cannot ignore. Since 1999 we have seen 4000 additional nurses; 1300 new medical personnel; 28 new public hospitals from Kaitaia to Invercargill; the largest immunisation campaign in New Zealand’s history; $2.2 billion pumped into primary health care thus halving annual doctors’ fees for ordinary Kiwis not doubling them like Tony Ryall would do; 7500 extra cataract operations; 10000 extra hip and knee operations; the largest campaign against obesity in New Zealand’s history; and on and on it goes. So while the Opposition thinks that it has had a lucky break because it found a newspaper that woke up in campaign mode Labour has been getting on with doing the work doing the mahi and making ordinary Kiwis’ lives better day by day week by week year by year and making a difference. 
The saddest thing about the Opposition is that it is led by an agreeable chap who benefited from a State house when he was growing up. He knows what it is like when ill fortune strikes so what he has grown up to do? He has grown up to try to take opportunities away from people just like him. 
Judith Collins 
: That is nasty. 
Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE 
: Oh oh! The member opposite disagrees. Has she had amnesia? Well the health system might help her. Has she forgotten that National flogged off most of the State housing stock in the 1990s? I tell Mrs Collins that Kiwis have not forgotten the 1990s even if she has. 
Kiwis have not forgotten the Employment Contracts Act. They have not forgotten how crippling it is to be unemployed. They have not forgotten what a Tory Government means for New Zealand. That is why the press got in a lather when Tony Ryall told the truth about doctors’ fees. That is why it got in a lather when the Hon Bill English—and I use the word advisedly—said that he would indeed privatise State-owned enterprises. To make that admission about privatisation was a very honourable thing to do. And the mask slipped because the country saw once again what a return to a National-led Government would mean for ordinary New Zealanders: back to the 1990s back to bulk funding back to selling off the family silver back to opening the country up to the control of foreigners and back to wrecking the welfare State. Goodbye Mickey Savage goodbye “Big Norm” goodbye King Dick and here we go market forces—fantastic! That is why we are on the Treasury benches and National members are on those benches and that is why we will stay here and they will stay there.