Ryall Tony: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Ryall Tony: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:637;Page:7273] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 New Zealanders listening on their radios today will be laughing at the irony of Annette King talking about loyalty. It was 11 years ago this year that Annette King waited on Helen Clark to tell her to leave the Labour Party leadership before the 1996 election. She wheeled herself up there with Mr Cullen Phil Goff and Jim Sutton and they called on Helen Clark to go. They said: “You can’t do it Helen. Go!”. They were right. She led Labour to its worst election result in 70 years. But Annette King is not a woman of good judgment. She displayed that 11 years ago and she has displayed it again in this House today. 
The Prime Minister’s speech today was a triumph of sloganeering—out with economic transformation in with sustainability! How many times could the Prime Minister say “sustainability” in the space of 35 minutes? Her speech should be recorded as one that demonstrates how out of touch New Zealand’s Prime Minister has become after 7 years of first class. This Prime Minister has become incredibly out of touch with what is happening in the reality of New Zealand today. In her speech the Prime Minister implied that there could be no criticism of Labour’s record because there had been record investment in this and record investment in that. But record investment is not matched by record achievement when it comes to this Labour Government. 
In education Helen Clark boasts about the school buildings. Those buildings do look good but many children inside those shiny schools that the Prime Minister opens are not teachable because they are hungry. Too many of those kids are leaving these bright shiny schools without a decent education to equip them in the world ahead. 
In respect of health the Prime Minister boasted this afternoon about big increases in health spending and so many new hospitals. Four billion dollars is a lot and the new hospitals do look good but no one can get in them. Spending is up by $4 billion but fewer people are having operations. 
The Prime Minister boasted in her speech about more State housing. But inside some of those homes families are falling apart. Those families are under pressure trying to make ends meet on welfare and this Prime Minister says there is no underclass in New Zealand. 
I read recently that 50 years ago the economist J K Galbraith spoke of “private affluence and public squalor”. It was said that our problem today is the opposite. We have more public affluence than ever before. The Government’s coffers are overflowing. Public services are funded at levels unimaginable even 7 years ago. But in private in families and communities there is greater “squalor” or hardship than ever before. 
The market is booming the State is booming but so many of our families are running into trouble. And Helen Clark says there is no underclass! This Prime Minister has become so infatuated with the mantra of more money for this and more money for that that she is not realising that more money is not making the difference. The kids are turning up hungry to the nice shiny schools that she skites about and they cannot get an education. The public cannot get into the nice new hospitals that she is talking about; and in the State houses that she likes to skite about so many families are under real pressure and falling apart. This Prime Minister is so completely out of touch because she continues to allow in her Cabinet incompetents who are undermining First World quality public services in this country. 
The greatest incompetent of all in this Labour Government is the Minister of Health. This Minister of Health fails to address any of the really important issues in health today. He has 42 reports on how to get more doctors nurses and workforce for our health services and he is not doing anything about it. He is on record denying any problems with midwife crises yet he now says there is one. He is on record as saying there is no problem with general practitioner shortages yet he now says there is one. This Minister is in denial and never prepared to accept the big issues he faces. He says nothing about the financial sustainability of health nothing about ageing and what we will do to make sure that our health services prepare for the ageing population and nothing about dealing with the torment of the waiting waiting and waiting to get services from our public health system. 
This Minister will stand up in the House this year and say that waiting lists are not a problem and that they are way down. Well of course waiting lists are way down when people cannot get on them. We should ask how many patients face long waiting times for surgery or hospital care. Eighty-five percent of New Zealand general practitioners said their patients often face long delays—the highest in any of the Western World countries surveyed by the Commonwealth Fund. 
I will share with the House a chart that has four lines on it. The top line represents the number of first specialist appointments that the public health service has offered in the last 7 years. It is a flat line. The second line in green represents the number of surgeries performed in public hospitals in the last 7 years. It is a flat line. The third line represents the number of people who have received elective surgery in the last 7 years. It is a flat line. Only one line is going up in this chart—and it is going up dramatically—and that line represents how much money the Government has put into Vote Health. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: Less for more! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: What this shows us is that we can get less for more. The Government has put $4 billion into the public health system and fewer people are getting care. In fact doctors are telling their patients to mortgage their homes to pay for—[ 
Interruption 
] The Minister for Social Development and Employment is giggling away over there. This is what happens. After spending a few years in first class those members are completely out of touch with where New Zealand is at. I say to that Minister that Dunedin is one of the worst parts of the country for people getting access to health services. His own orthopaedic surgeons in Dunedin say that people have to be crippled on crutches or in constant pain before they will get a joint replacement there. That is what they say in Dunedin and what does that member do? He just laughs. 
Hon Member 
: He’s got insurance. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Has he got health insurance? We have not heard. But I say to that Minister that he should listen to what doctors are saying to their patients. They are telling them to mortgage their homes to get an operation. That is what is being said in Dunedin. Even the public hospital specialists in Dunedin say people have to be crippled and in constant pain to get an orthopaedic operation in Dunedin. 
 The Prime Minister has said today in this House that we have had great success with joint replacements but in Dunedin one has to be hobbled and in constant pain before one can get an operation—and the local MP laughs. The speech from the Prime Minister showed how completely out of touch she is with this country. It was full of slogans buzzwords and focus group - tested messages—none of which count for anything because this Prime Minister has no vision for New Zealand. She has been there for 7 years. She is tired. She now wants to be the Minister of Finance because Dr Cullen has been well and truly sidelined because of his role as the “Minister of Mortgage Levy”. And the two people who are rubbing their hands the most at Dr Cullen’s downfall are Trevor Mallard and Phil Goff because they both see themselves as taking the Treasury Minister’s role within a few weeks of Dr Michael Cullen’s last Budget—a Budget that will be devoid of vision and will be a message of “Good riddance!” from the people of New Zealand.