Ryall Tony: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Ryall Tony: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations  and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:631;Page:3078] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I am not surprised the Minister of Health has not sought a call in this debate. What would he talk about if he did take a call? Would he talk about his vision for health? Would he talk about his action plan? I will tell members what he would talk about—us. He would talk about the National Party. When he had the opportunity to give his maiden speech as Minister of Health he spent nine out of 10 pages talking about the agenda National has been setting in health and trying to explain why Annette King managed the portfolio so much better than he is. The Minister talks about lying awake at night worrying about the bird flu. I wonder whether he also lies awake and worries about why Annette King managed to have health under control as opposed to how it is going under him—and poll after poll shows that under this Minister health is turning into a disaster. 
How was Annette King able to negotiate with general practitioners and get a successful roll-out of the increased subsidies whereas this Minister is having trouble with significant parts of the general practitioner workforce in getting those through? Why when the waiting lists were growing and growing was Annette King able to be Minister of Health without that being too much of an issue? 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: It’s the Kyoto touch. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Yes. Why were district health board deficits growing and growing under Annette King without that seeming to be an issue? And why under Annette King was elective surgery going nowhere in this country without anything being said about it? Why is it all turning to custard on Pete Hodgson’s watch? 
I will tell members what it is about. It is about a Minister who thinks he knows everything. That is what is being said in the health sector today. As we travel around the country talking to district health boards community groups and interest groups one message is becoming clear: this Minister of Health thinks he knows everything and dares not take any criticism. We have seen his performance in this Chamber. Could he justify fewer New Zealanders getting elective surgery today than 5 years ago? No he just gives a vein-popping performance which his colleagues have counselled him against. Does he stand up in this Chamber and justify why he has dumped 14000 people from specialists’ waiting lists with another 20000 at risk? Because that is what is at risk. If district health boards are to become compliant as Poutasi wrote to them about in March that is how many people would have to be dumped. 
But do we hear any explanation of that from Mr Hodgson? We hear none at all. I wonder whether he has been to Annette King and asked her how she managed health like she did for 6 years yet in the 6 months he has been in the job it has been nothing but a bad headline with cartoon after cartoon showing him as a Minister who is under pressure and out of control. What is behind it? Maybe the Minister could take a call and tell us whether he has ever gone to Annette King and asked her how she had it under control when under him it is out of control. Let us actually hear from the Minister. Let us see whether he can go 5 minutes talking about his positive plan of action without mentioning the National Party. Whatever his plan of action might be it will be in response to what we are doing because more and more people in the health system realise that this Government’s rhetoric is all it has to offer. 
Where is the real commitment to a strong and growing primary health workforce? Where is the investment in the workforce in this country? Where is the commitment to support private - practice general practitioners? Why is there a breakdown that has resulted in general practitioners issuing for the first time in years a red letter warning their members against the Government’s proposal? Where is his plan of action to provide more elective services for New Zealand? Where is his plan to stop the wasteful duplication and fragmentation in the health system? It is nowhere. I want the Minister to take a call and see whether he can speak for 5 minutes without doing what he did in his maiden speech—that is see whether he can talk the whole time about his plan of action without responding to National’s.