Coleman Jonathan: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2015. Volume:707;Page:5542. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): It is not that long ago that we were in the middle of a health crisis in New Zealand. It seems hard to believe now but people listening at home will remember a time when you would turn up to North Shore Hospital—where the people of the Northcote electorate go to—and you would be greeted by a queue of ambulances in the car park lined up trying to get the patients into the emergency department. And then if you got through the car park past those ambulances you would go into the waiting room and you would find people waiting on trollies under harsh fluorescent lights who had been there for up to 24 hours.Meanwhile you would come into the Chamber here—I can remember it well. We were in Opposition. You would hear health Ministers blustering about the success of the Labour Government. But in actual fact the rhetoric just did not match what was happening out on the ground. While Annette King and Pete Hodgson were in here boasting of false achievements—achievements that never really happened that just did not take place—the public out there in New Zealand knew the reality because they were going to the airports and getting on the jet planes to fly to Australia for basic cancer treatment.There were 30000 people out there who were kicked off surgical waiting lists under the reign of Pete Hodgson and Annette King. That was the fact of it. People could not get the care they needed. There were so many people waiting on those surgical wait lists over 6 months that in the end Labour just canned the wait lists and told everybody to go home.Well help was on the way. In the 2008 election it arrived. Since then this National Government has had a consistent history of putting more money into the budget each year. There has been a record increase—a $15.9 billion vote and $4.1 billion has gone in over the last 7 years. But the most important thing has been the solid stewardship and the results that that has delivered.Labour was pouring money in but getting worse and worse results. Labour doubled the health budget but it delivered 5000 fewer appointments and 2000 fewer operations. It got so bad that in September 2005 as Mrs King’s reign was drawing to a close the Dominion Post wrote an editorial asking how you could pour so much money into a health system yet it still got worse. No one could understand it. It was just incompetent management.Since then what have we seen? Under National there are 5000 extra doctors and nurses in the system 50000 more appointments and 45000 more elective operations. No one is going to Australia for basic cancer care. We have set very clear targets and we are delivering on them. Under Labour they were not even counting which kids got immunised. Now we have started—off a percentage base in the mid-70s—to have nearly 95 percent of 8-month-olds fully immunised. Ninety-five percent of people are in and out of emergency departments within 6 hours. We have achieved the first cancer care target. We have now moved on to a new one: the gold standard 62-day pathway. We are determined we will make progress with that. We are recording smoking rates and cardiovascular data. It has all improved under National. We have actually delivered what the public really cares about.Just with this Budget there have been some great initiatives like another $98 million going into surgery over the next few years and $76 million into palliative care. A lot of that money is going into the community—so delivering nurse specialists; delivering care close to the home. These are the things that New Zealanders are telling us are important. But do you know what the ultimate prize has been? It has been the free health-care for under-13s—a policy that Labour could only ever talk about but it never delivered. So we have now got 750000 children in New Zealand under the age of 13 who are getting free GP visits. We know that is going to make a real difference to the health of those children so that is a signal achievement. This Government will put in $120 million over the next 4 years to deliver that.In the meantime all that Labour can do is to try to make up statistics and look for leaked papers. We have had no policy work from the Labour Party in health. We know that Labour is not ready for Government because we have not seen any work. Labour members do not go around the sector. What they do is go around trying to corrupt officials and steal papers and then make up figures.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will resume his seat. I think the member knows that accusing people of acquiring things or asking people to steal them is not parliamentary. The member will withdraw.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I withdraw. But the essential point is that Labour poured in more and more money but it did not run the system properly.Grant Robertson: Blow your cigar smoke all over people Jonathan.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: And you can see what a raw nerve this is because Grant Robertson is losing it. Grant has completely lost it. National has won on health; Labour lost—Labour did.Grant Robertson: What a disgrace you are.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: You can hear Grant Robertson yelling and raving here. He knows he has lost the debate.