Ryall Tony: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Ryall Tony: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:640;Page:10185] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 This is truly an incompetent Government that sits opposite the National Party today. It is a Government of slick slogans and no delivery at all. It is a Government completely fixated with spending more and getting less for what it is spending and there is no area where that is more stark than in Vote Health. This is a Government that measures its performance solely on how much money it has spent on health. If we ask the Government whether things are improving in the hospitals its answer is that because it is spending billions of dollars more yes they must be improving. If we ask the Government whether maternity services are improving it says that yes they must be because it is spending hundreds of millions of dollars more in that area. If we ask the Government whether our hospital services are improving for people who need non-urgent but vital surgery it says that yes they must be because it is spending more and therefore we must be getting more. 
Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a Government that has produced more spending and lower quality. I will give an example in relation to maternity services. The Government says it is spending more than ever before on maternity services. But the question about quality has to be asked. In Waitemata 24 percent of women presenting at the hospital to give birth this year did not have a lead maternity carer. A quarter of all the women who presented at the Waitemata District Health Board hospital did not have a lead maternity carer. What does that say about the quality of support that those women of west Auckland and the North Shore have received from this Government when they cannot get a lead maternity carer? 
Jo Goodhew 
: It’s a lucky dip. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: “It’s a lucky dip.” says Mrs Goodhew. And what about the issue of the emergency departments we have been highlighting this weekend? Basically every provincial newspaper around New Zealand today is reporting that no major hospital in this country is meeting the Government’s own benchmarks for the delivery and treatment of care of people presenting to emergency departments. It is not the National Party’s benchmarks; it is the Government’s benchmarks. Even people with imminent threat to life and limb cannot get their problems met and serviced within the Government’s own time frames. What does that say about the quality of care in our emergency departments? 
Jo Goodhew 
: It’s scary. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: What is scary I say to Mrs Goodhew is that researcher after researcher has shown that the longer people wait to be treated in an emergency department and the longer they lie on a hospital trolley—for hours in Waitemata at the North Shore Hospital—then the less chance there is of a successful recovery. Researcher after researcher shows that the risk of dying increases dramatically the longer one has to wait in a hospital emergency department. Is that quality health care? No it is not. 
The Government has put an awful lot of money into primary care—an awful lot. But what about the quality of the service? We know there are fewer general practitioners today than there were in 1999. We know it is harder for many people to get on a general practitioner’s books. We need just go to the Otaki electorate to see the experience of people who live around Waikanae and Kapiti. They cannot get on a general practitioner’s books. There are problems in Waimate and people in Gisborne cannot get on a general practitioner’s books. It boils down to the quality of the service that is being provided. Where are the multi-disciplinary teams—the cooperation between doctors nurses physiotherapists and pharmacists and all that stuff the Government promised? There are none. Even the Minister admitted that in a paper to his Cabinet colleagues. 
Where is the coordination between primary and secondary care that would improve the quality of the service for patients in response to the millions and billions of dollars being put into health? There is none. Look at the diabetes “Get Checked” Diabetes Aotearoa programme. Millions of dollars have been put into that programme and it has been panned by the Auditor-General. As Dr Jackie Blue will be able to show in this House some time this week the Government simply has not delivered on the promises it made. 
We should look at what is really another indicator on the quality of the service for New Zealand patients; that is non-urgent but vital surgery—elective surgery. Whatever the Government says despite the $4 billion extra a year in health fewer New Zealanders are getting operations in New Zealand hospitals today. Is that a quality health system? I do not think so. Is it a quality health system when most people who turn up in emergency departments in some parts of the country will not be seen on time? Is it a quality health system when women cannot get a lead maternity carer? Is it is a quality health system when people cannot get on doctors’ books? Is it a quality health system when as was mentioned in Dunedin people have to be crippled bent over and on maximum opiate medication to get a hip replacement? Is that a quality public health system? I do not think so and neither do the people of New Zealand. 
This Government is all about throwing money at things rather than dealing with providing a quality public service. Under Labour the hallmark of the public health service is waiting waiting waiting. People wait longer to see a hospital specialist longer to get their operation longer in a hospital emergency department and longer in their general practitioner’s surgery. This Government has us on a path to a place where that will get worse. The real challenge for the party opposite is to provide quality public health services with what is being spent. One measures that on the service patients are getting not on how much money has been thrown at it. This Government is putting $4 billion extra a year into health and there is nothing extra to show for it. Indeed the quality is raising concerns all around the country. 
But the pressure the Government faces in health is across a whole lot of areas of portfolios today. One area of particular concern to most New Zealanders is the massive increase in interest rates being seen under the Labour Government. As Bill English said earlier on in this debate 30 percent of New Zealanders with a 2-year fixed mortgage will have that mortgage come to term in the next 3 months and they will find their interest rates going from about 7.5 percent to 9.25 percent. That is an incredibly significant increase. Driving that burden of rising interest rates is the unchecked growth in wasteful Government spending that is putting huge interest rate pressure on New Zealand families. The Government should tighten its belt to carry its share of the burden of fighting inflation. 
The problem in our country today is that the Reserve Bank is operating in isolation and in fact is diametrically opposed to the fiscal policies of this Government. This Government is spending spending and spending wastefully. That is putting huge pressure on interest rates and New Zealand homeowners are feeling the pressure of that. It is making it harder for New Zealanders to buy their own homes. Is that what the people who voted for Labour in the 2005 general election were promised? Were they promised that there would be higher interest rates making it harder for people to buy their own home? I do not think so. This is a Government whose own profligacy is contributing to that. 
I would like the Minister of Health to take a call this week and tell us which doctors and nurses in the public health system will lose their jobs this year because Pete Hodgson stood up in this House 2 months ago and said that if there are tax cuts of any sort doctors and nurses will lose their jobs. Well I say to the Minister there is $1 billion worth of company tax cuts in this year’s Budget so how many doctors and nurses will lose their jobs? The answer is none because that was a ridiculous claim made by that Minister and a foolish claim made by the outgoing Minister of Finance Dr Cullen. 
This Government has no idea. Dr Cullen says no to personal tax cuts; Trevor Mallard says yes to personal tax cuts. Helen Clark just does not know which way to go. She does not know which way to go. Michael Cullen who has been with her all those years almost cost her the 2005 general election with his belligerent attitude towards letting people keep more of the earnings from their hard work in their pockets and he will put her back where she belongs in Opposition if he stays as Minister of Finance. 
New Zealanders are now realising that there is a new leader on the political horizon John Key—a leader who is offering a new sense of vision a commitment to a quality education system and lower taxes to help people work harder and get ahead. Lastly he is offering a Prime Minister committed to building the infrastructure of this country and a Prime Minister who will assure New Zealanders that the money they are investing in public services will provide quality public services not wasteful public services like those provided by Mr Benson-Pope who spent $158 million of taxpayers’ money to get fewer people on the sickness and invalids benefits when today there are actually more. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Before I call the next speaker I advise members that United Future has a 5-minute call.