Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 24 October 2007. Volume:643;Page:12658. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 Sir Apirana Ngata Eruera Tirikatene Duncan MacIntyre Koro Wetere—they are men who were proud to be the Minister of Maori Affairs and who could stand on any marae in this country and not be an embarrassment to this Parliament. But then we end up with Parekura Horomia and his matrix of dysfunction. He is a Minister whom no one understands what he actually says. He has a matrix of dysfunction. The matrix of dysfunction that I want to talk about in this House today is the matrix of dysfunction opposite that holds itself out as the Labour Government of this country. 
I have to say the Prime Minister has been receiving a lot of mail from her colleagues recently and I have managed to get hold of what purports to be a letter from Pete Hodgson to the Prime Minister explaining why he should remain the Minister of Health. That is what this letter holds itself out to be. It starts off “Dearest Prime Minister” and these are the points. The Prime Minister said: “Write to us and tell us why you should remain a Minister.” This is what Pete Hodgson said: “First I am your key strategist.” That is what Pete Hodgson said to Helen Clark: “I am your key strategist.” Sure Mr Hodgson was the strategist for the 1990 election campaign but lost that. He was the strategist for the 1993 election campaign and the 1996 election campaign and lost both of those. Oh he was the strategist for 2005 where Labour stole $800000 of taxpayers’ money as the only way to win that election. So what Pete Hodgson said was: “The first point is that I’m your key strategist.” The second thing he said was: “I’m an electoral finance expert.” That is what Pete Hodgson said. Well that is very helpful in light of what has been happening. But here is the kicker. Thirdly he said: “I have a special connection with the health sector.” That is what Pete Hodgson said to the Prime Minister. 
This letter says to the Prime Minister that Pete Hodgson should not go. That is what this letter says; it says that Pete Hodgson should not go. We are to ignore everything that has fallen apart while he has been Minister of Health. In his letter Pete Hodgson will be blaming Annette King for everything that has gone wrong. But we are to ignore all that has happened under Pete Hodgson. We are to ignore the fact that the army of health bureaucrats is getting fatter and fatter by the day. If people are worried about the obesity epidemic it is in the Ministry of Health’s payroll. There is a 55 percent increase in the Ministry of Health’s payroll 24 percent more staff a doubling in the number of people earning over $100000 and 2000 more managers and administrators in the health sector. It is no wonder this health system is creaking under the pressure of bureaucracy. 
No more New Zealanders on a per capita basis are getting elective surgery today than when Labour came to office. The Government has put $5 billion extra into the health system and there is no more surgery for New Zealanders. No more New Zealanders are getting to see a hospital specialist. In fact the number of people getting to see a hospital specialist is 15 percent lower than it was when the district health boards started. Fifteen percent fewer New Zealanders are getting the vitally needed appointment with hospital specialists in order to get into care to get into the system. 
Then there are the emergency departments. Things have not improved in emergency departments around this country. We have all received correspondence concerning an elderly woman who died on the North Shore having spent 16 hours on a trolley before being taken to the ward. As her daughter has written to us how would those members like to spend their last 24 hours languishing in a corridor at North Shore Hospital? Is that the way Labour Party members want to treat the most vulnerable New Zealanders in this country? Do they want them to spend their last hours on this Earth stuck on a trolley in a corridor and under bright fluorescent lights? Is that the sort of end the Labour Party wants to give older New Zealanders? 
The fact is whatever Pete Hodgson is writing to the Prime Minister to justify his position he cannot justify it to the people of New Zealand. There is $5 billion a year extra and the public health service in New Zealand is in desperate need of new leadership new ideas and a fresh vision. That is why the National Party has released—and no other Opposition has ever done this—a detailed set of proposals that will improve the public health service of New Zealand. Do members know what? Labour has not criticised one of those proposals because its members know that those proposals are in the best interests of the health system.