Goodhew Jo: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Goodhew Jo: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15028] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Aoraki) 
: 
 Is this not timely? Here we are in the financial review debate and I just wonder how the Government members feel when the Opposition gets this wonderful opportunity to hammer home the message that we heard last week from John Key the Leader of the Opposition about the ever-growing State sector—the bureaucracy—that bogs down the spending of New Zealand taxpayers’ money. When the Health Committee did the financial review for the Ministry of Health interestingly we cut straight to the chase in the report. If members view the report at page 184 they will see not just that there are 806 fulltime equivalent staff in the core ministry and a further 457 fulltime equivalents in eight other business units but that this particular ministry has grown since 2002 in terms of the number of staff earning over $100000. The number of staff earning over $100000 a year has grown from 94 to—wait for it. Maybe it is a 50 percent increase. No it is more than a 100 percent increase. There are 194 people within the Ministry of Health who are earning over the magic figure of $100000. 
We have heard from John Key that that is the fastest-growing part of our economy. New Zealanders have welcomed the news that the National Party will cap that bureaucracy. We will simply not let it grow at that pace. The National Party has reassured the people of New Zealand not to fall for the abysmal statements we heard before the last election. We have reassured them so they do not fall for the scaremongering reports that National will cut the number of nurses doctors and teachers. It is absolute and utter rubbish. We have said we will grow front-line services. [ 
Interruption 
] And those folk over there will grow bureaucracy. The people of New Zealand certainly have come to understand that. 
In the financial review for 2005/06 the ministry was asked to review the Ageing in Place strategy and look at the acuity of older people who were going into aged residential care to see whether it had increased—in other words to see whether the people going into aged residential care were requiring on average much more care. Well we waited with bated breath to hear from the ministry what it had found out in the ensuing year then we worked out what those bureaucrats had been doing—big fat nothing absolutely nothing. They took no notice of the Health Committee—no notice whatsoever. They ignored our recommendation and that is absolutely scandalous. So we got the opportunity to tick them off somewhat. It is absolutely reprehensible that they did not follow the Health Committee’s recommendation. They were told that that was unacceptable. We reiterated that they need to get on with that recommendation and to do so soon. Maybe these bureaucrats are so busy piling on pile on pile their reports that they cannot see the wood for the trees and there are certainly plenty of trees in those reports. 
The bureaucracy is growing but so too is the unease of the New Zealand public. They are really wondering whether their taxpayer dollars that have been put into health—and we know there has been a significant increase in funding from $6 billion to $11 billion—have been well spent under this Labour Government. They do not have confidence that those taxpayer dollars have been well spent when they hear about continual problems with district health board after district health board. 
I ask Government members to please tell me what the difference is between the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board the troubled Capital and Coast District Health Board and the Southland District Health Board which is sharing services with the Otago District Health Board because it is having difficulty in attracting staff. They have so many vacancies down there. If members ask what the difference is between the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board and the Whanganui District Health Board I can tell them one very big difference. The people of Hawke’s Bay trusted their district health board; the people of Whanganui appear not to have done so. It comes back to asking the people of New Zealand whether they trust the Labour Government to spend their taxpayer dollars well. Certainly the message that I am getting loud and clear over and over again is that the public of New Zealand are not convinced that their money is spent wisely. They will do much better under a National Government later this year.