Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I am very proud to be part of a Government that makes health quality and public health system a priority—something we did not see for nine years under the previous Government. Tomorrow is going to be a very important day for our health system and for the public and publicly funded health services right across the country. Tomorrow is an important day. Tomorrow marks another foundation for the work that this Government is doing in rebuilding our health services that we started nearly five years ago.We inherited a system that was not funded for population growth a system that in funding terms just went backwards a system where the buildings were left to run down a Government that put roughly a billion dollars into the system over nine years. This Government has put nearly $6 billion into buildings and into rebuilding our IT infrastructure across health in the nearly five years that we've been in Government. We inherited buildings that were literally left to rot. We had buildings announced—new buildings announced—but with no funding like the new Dunedin Hospital that we are now getting on with and doing. We had nurses' pay going backwards. Nurses' pay went backwards under the last Government. The pay increases didn't even cover the rate of inflation. And we had mental health services totally and utterly ignored turned their back on by that previous Government. The reality is: National in Government does not care about health. They don't care about public health services. And the important thing is this: all their talk about—they demand tax cuts which is what they did previously in Government and then people wonder why things like our health services are left to run down. New Zealanders are more canny than that. They now see what the price is of a party that insists on cutting taxes for the wealthy and enriching them and running down our public services like our health services. The other thing of course that we saw under the previous Government was hideously worsening equity in our health services. Māori life expectancy now is seven years less than the rest of the population—Māori health services struggling to provide the services that their people need.Well it's going to change. Good health services are vital to strong communities and strong whānau and families. Already this Government has increased core health funding by 25 percent—that's before tomorrow. We've increased Pharmac funding by the same amount by every year we have been in office. Compare this to the three-year freeze under the previous Government. We've committed nearly $6 billion in capital spending for buildings and IT across the health sector. We've started rebuilding mental health services with the investment of $1.9 billion and man what a difference that is now making: more than 900 people and new roles across the front-line health systems and GP clinics and community clinics roles that were not there two years ago; roles that now thousands of people every month are turning up to to get the benefit of because this is a Government that does not turn its back on the hardest problems whether in mental health or any other part of the health system. That's what National does. They don't care about public health services. They don't care about New Zealanders' health. They don't care about their mental health and wellbeing. What they did to ensure there was no accountability was they abolished the Mental Health Commission. In 2012 they abolished the Mental Health Commission. They did not want an independent monitor telling them what was going wrong and what was needed and what the improvements were. They just cut it. They stopped the voice. That's what National Governments do when they don't want to hear the bad news. Well it's changing. Yesterday I was very proud to announce the new investments that this Government is making. We've started with the front end of mental health the big gap identified by the He Ara Oranga report of those with mild to moderate mental health issues. And we've started that work now started the roll-out halfway through it. Now we get to work on the specialists in the acute end of mental health services—not more beds in the mental health ward which is what the National Party talks about but what the real gap is in community services community residential spaces. Everywhere I go that's what the mental health specialists tell me we are desperately lacking. And now we've got an investment plan behind it—$100 million over four years to start to pick up and fill that gap. That's the stuff you do when you care about health. This is a party whose history is rooted in actually supporting public health services back to the first Budgets of 1935 and 1938. That's what Labour Governments do. And this Government is committed to health services that actually provide the care that people need committed to health equity. That's why we will have a Health New Zealand and a Māori Health Authority working hand in glove together; a waka hourua—working together to deliver a public health service that this country needs and has so long deserved.