10. Question No. 10—HealthTODD STEPHENSON (ACT) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 10—Health TODD STEPHENSON (ACT): My question is to the Associate Minister of Health and asks what recent announcements [Interruption] has he made about improving—SPEAKER: Hang on just hang on. Just wait. Now you can start again.TODD STEPHENSON: Oh I'll go again. Great! Minister what recent announcements—[Interruption]SPEAKER: No hang on. I'm sorry questions are going to be heard in silence.10. TODD STEPHENSON (ACT) to the Associate Minister of Health: I've spared the House by singing my question! What recent announcements has he made about improving Kiwis'' access to medicines?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR (Associate Minister of Health): I'd like to acknowledge the presence of the Rt Hon John Key who's clearly at a loose end! In respect of pharmaceuticals and medicines for New Zealanders I announced yesterday that we will have a budget of nearly $1.6 billion a year for medicines for Kiwis for the next four years. For many New Zealanders funding medicine means life or death or the difference between a life of pain and suffering or living freely. This Government has managed to make the sacrifices in other areas by cutting waste to fund these vital medicines so they don't get cut.Todd Stephenson: Why was there a need to announce this package?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: The previous Government talked a big game about care and kindness but when it came to funding medicines—Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: How's that in order?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: —they budgeted $1.4—SPEAKER: Yeah I think that's a fair point. Just start the answer again without the political attack—I'm sure the member's capable of doing that.Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: Mr Speaker I make only the most factual statements and I was trying to complement them. But nevertheless in spite of the rhetoric surrounding medicines the previous Government forecasted for four years $1.5 billion this year and only $1.1 billion for the coming three years. That meant when this Government came into office Pharmac—who buy medicines for New Zealanders—said if you don't do something about this we will spend the next year not funding new medicines but deciding which patients to exclude from existing medicines and which medicines to take off the list. As a result this Government has had to find another $455 million a year or $1.774 billion in total to fill in that fiscal cliff where the previous Government had not put the money aside to fund the medicines people need. In doing this we faced three options. We could tax overtaxed households and businesses more we could borrow another $1.774 billion or we could find savings of waste in other areas to pay for the medicines people need. We've done the third one and that sums up how this Government is taking on this Budget.SPEAKER: Just make sure the answers are a bit more concise.Hon Nicola Willis: Does the Minister think it is a prudent way to manage New Zealand's fiscal situation to leave critical medicines unfunded in the Budget such as the last Government did in Budget 2023 so that those medicines would have to be delisted if it weren't for the prudent decision of this Government to fund them?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: I have no responsibility for being—Hon Kieran McAnulty: Point of order. Given the ruling that you've just given in this series of questions the House I believe needs to understand how that question was allowed. It gave reference specifically to the previous Government in the question. This is a dance that we have to have every single question time it seems that Government Ministers are repeatedly ignoring your instructions.SPEAKER: Yeah but what I also said—Hon David Seymour: Speaking to the point of order.SPEAKER: OK.Hon David Seymour: How is it possible that we as a Government find ourselves with a $1.8 billion hole of negligence left by those guys and we're not allowed to talk about it in question time?SPEAKER: My point in response to the Hon Kieran McAnulty is that there is a difference between an outright attack and a reference to actions of a previous Government. Actions of a previous Government are not ruled out and have not been ruled out. The reference to the Budget of a previous Government therefore is in order.Hon David Seymour: Mr Speaker far be it from me to be the Minister of Finance's thesaurus but I would say that setting up expectations amongst New Zealanders of something as vital as medicine and not actually putting aside the money to pay for it is not only imprudent but it is frankly dishonest and misleading to the New Zealand public. I'm proud to say that this Government has funded—SPEAKER: Yeah no—that's enough.Todd Stephenson: Supplementary.SPEAKER: Well it might be the last one.Todd Stephenson: How will this announcement help to support New Zealanders' healthcare?Hon DAVID SEYMOUR: We are at the moment in a time of extraordinary technical revolution when it comes to medicines. The question is whether New Zealanders can keep up with the First World expectations that they have for themselves and their families. This funding means that many medicines that would have been at risk of delisting will continue. That includes 30 new medicines funded since 2022; 31 with widened access to more patients; and decisions that have been recently made or are in progress such as funding continuous glucose monitors insulin pumps and myeloma treatments. Those would have been at risk under the Budget this Government inherited. They are now viable because we've found the savings of waste elsewhere to put the money into medicines Kiwis need.Hon Nicola Willis: Has the Minister seen comments by a member of this House who referred to his decision to rescue Pharmac through this funding boost as fiscal jiggery-pokery" and does he think the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall was wrong to suggest that funding medicine is anything but good policy?SPEAKER: No that's not a question for answer.Hon David Seymour: Mr Speaker I'd love to answer the first part.SPEAKER: No it's not a question. I haven't called you. No you need to sit down."