Ryall Tony: General Debate 
Ryall Tony: General Debate 
[Volume:630;Page:2698] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of miscellaneous business 
. The National Party looks forward to this general debate because this week the Government has come back from the “recess from hell”. It has been the “recess from hell” for the Labour Government because it has completely lost touch with the country and it has been completely exposed for its mismanagement across a huge number of portfolio areas. 
Not the least of those is Vote Health. Pete Hodgson’s speech was billed as the Minister’s grand vision for health. It was billed as Pete Hodgson’s putting his stamp on the Labour Party’s health policy. But what was it all about? Nine out of the 10 pages of speech notes were all about the National Party and the agenda it has been setting in the debate about the public health services in this country. It was all about National setting the agenda in health just as we have spent the last adjournment setting the agenda regarding the Government’s hopeless performance in the law and order portfolio. We found out today that the Government has been running a secret criminal release scheme which puts remand prisoners out into the community without telling anybody about that change in Government policy. This Government is also losing control of the housing portfolio where the chief executive of Housing New Zealand was paying public servants in order to gag them from talking to members of this House. 
If we look across the benches we see a Minister of Health who is very much under pressure completely out of his depth and unable to see the wood for the trees—and he is straining as the  
New Zealand Herald  
stated. What is he straining under? He is straining under the fact that after 6 years of a Labour Government and billions of extra dollars in health New Zealanders are asking where the extra operations are. This Minister stood up at Victoria University and tried to say that this Government had done 107000 elective operations and only 8000 people had been turned away. Well what about the fact that he is no “Good Shepherd”? A “Good Shepherd” would be more worried about those who were missing out than those who were getting surgery—107000 elective operations in the last year. That number has dropped from the year before. In fact it is lower than it was 5 years previously. Fewer New Zealanders are getting elective surgery and those who are are a lot sicker than they were 5 years ago. 
It is not just the New Zealand National Party Opposition that says that. The Auckland District Health Board says that patients have to be sicker today in order to get an operation than they had to be 5 years ago. The Capital and Coast District Health Board has admitted that people have to be sicker than they had to be 5 years ago in order to get an operation. The Canterbury District Health Board has admitted that people have to be sicker than they had to be 5 years ago in order to get an operation and this Minister cannot stand up in the House and justify that. All we see are those sorts of Goff-like vein-popping reactions as the Minister tries to shout bluff and blunder his way through answers to questions—and he has no answer at all. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I’m next! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I am glad Mr Peters interjects because I know he is concerned about the hundreds of people being dumped off waiting lists in Tauranga. And I know that Mr Peters is concerned about the number of people who die while on the waiting list in Tauranga. I know he is concerned about the fact that potentially thousands of people in the Bay of Plenty region will be dumped off the waiting list—and we will hear that from the Minister tomorrow. 
The Minister’s speech on health was completely bereft of any vision new ideas or fresh approach to dealing with the problems he has inherited from the much-overrated Annette King. All the things that she could hide with bluff and blunder and by pretending not to deal with the issues are now coming home to roost and Minister Hodgson is completely incapable of dealing with the vital issues facing the health service. What about the workforce in health? There is a massive shortage of doctors and nurses but there are plenty of bureaucrats. What about dealing with the issues?