7. Health Minister—Policies and TargetsHon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) to the Minister of HealthHealth Minister—Policies and Targets7. Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) to the Minister of Health: What quantifiable health service improvements if any will his policies deliver?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): This Government is committed to providing affordable access to quality healthcare for all New Zealanders. This will happen in many ways; there are too many examples to list. However to pick just one I can tell the member that more people will be able to access affordable primary healthcare.Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: By exactly how much will he lift the number of elective surgeries above the 174000 delivered in the past year given his commitment to increase access to elective surgery?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I will not be rushed into committing to specific targets. I want a health system that is honest and transparent with targets not like the previous Government's one which was pumping statistics by performing Avastin injections and skin lesions removals that could have been done in primary care.Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. It was a very direct question. If he doesn't have an answer he should just say so.Mr SPEAKER: No. I probably was a bit slack letting him go on after he answered the question in the first sentence.Matt Doocey: By how much will he reduce the suicide rate over the next three years now that his Government has taken responsibility for the rate as reported in the New Zealand Herald yesterday in the article entitled … New Health Minister pledges change on youth suicide"?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: One suicide is one suicide too many. I do not believe it will be possible to eliminate suicide in the first term of this Government but we are committed to lowering the rate of suicide in New Zealand and I am looking forward to beginning the mental health inquiry.Dr Shane Reti: What did he mean exactly by his statement to the New Zealand Herald yesterday that addressing colonisation will be an important part of his mental health inquiry?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: That is one factor that I said to the New Zealand Herald I expect will come up in the inquiry.Jo Luxton: What advice has the Minister—Hon Simon Bridges: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Sorry point of—Hon Simon Bridges: He was asked a very clear question as to what he meant. He hasn't answered that remotely.Mr SPEAKER: Well I beg to differ.Jo Luxton: What advice has the Minister received on the financial state and viability of the health sector he has inherited?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: Bad news: as the incoming health Minister I've been advised that a third of the way into the current financial year not one district health board (DHB) annual plan has been signed off. Furthermore I've learned that under the previous Government's watch DHB deficits have been increasing at an unsustainable rate.Mr SPEAKER: All right. Order! Again I probably should've stopped the member earlier. The supplementary question might be an interesting one and it could be a very good primary question but its relationship to the first question or even to the subsequent answers is too tenuous and we're not going to continue with it.Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: Can he explain the improvements his policies will have on the link that he believes exists between colonisation and youth suicide?Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: This Government will commit to a mental health review—an inquiry a ministerial inquiry—and that inquiry I have asked to be broad. It will cover a variety of topics including the one the former Minister has raised and I expect it to provide answers that will help us to provide mental health services that New Zealanders need.Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: I seek leave to table an article from the New Zealand Herald dated 13 November entitled—Mr SPEAKER: Not a chance. Stop now. Sit down."