Ryall Tony: Budget Debate 
Ryall Tony: Budget Debate 
[Volume:631;Page:3281] 
Hon TONY RYALL (National—Bay of Plenty) 
: 
 I wonder how many people in this House believe what Lianne Dalziel just said. Is she the Minister who told lies to the media and got dumped from Cabinet? How can we rely on what she says? Is she the Minister who told lies to New Zealanders and got dumped from Cabinet? Frankly I have to say I agree with— 
Darren Hughes 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. The Government understands that the member is slightly embarrassed about his behaviour on  
Morning Report 
 yesterday when he was not completely honest but he cannot accuse another member of using unparliamentary words— 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That is not a point of order. Sit down. 
Darren Hughes 
: I am on a point of order I say to Mr Ryall so he should sit down. Members cannot use unparliamentary words like he just used about another member. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: It is true. 
Darren Hughes 
: Plus he has continued to interject during my point of order; he has just done it again. He needs to be brought to order. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ann Hartley) 
: The member is quite right; he cannot accuse another member of lying. He knows that is unparliamentary. I also make the point to Mr Ryall that he must not interject when a point of order is being heard. I ask you to withdraw and apologise. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I withdraw and apologise. Lianne Dalziel did not tell the truth when she was Minister of Immigration and was asked specifically whether she leaked documents to TV3. She said no but she had. 
I agree with Katherine Rich a person whom members can believe and who would not not tell the truth to the media. Katherine Rich said: “Whoop-de-do another review.” I tell Lianne Dalziel—and this is the truth—the public have heard all this before. She has had a couple of good write-ups from Fran O’Sullivan so she thinks she is on her way back. The fact is that Fran O’Sullivan gave Paul Swain a great write-up when he had his small-business group. Fran O’Sullivan also gave John Tamihere a great write-up when he had his small-business group. We know that nothing ever came out of them.  
Do members want to know the most telling comment made by Lianne Dalziel in her press conference? It was that we could not go there because the Government was elected on those policies. Anything that Labour has done it was elected on and there will not be any changes to those policies. That is a joke. Of course a few sector groups will welcome it; they are hoping they might get something out of it. But frankly I say whoop-de-do; here we go again.  
I am sure many New Zealanders would have thought the same about health in this Budget. There was absolutely nothing in this Budget about the most pressing issues facing the health sector today. Where was the leadership and direction on trying to secure and train a sufficient health workforce in New Zealand? Where was the leadership to say we will get more general practitioners so that we can have family health-care closer to where it is needed and at a better price? Where was the leadership to have more general practitioners and more nurses in our community? In fact how can general practitioners—and those wanting to be general practitioners—have any confidence at all in this Government when we have a Minister of Health who calls leading surgeons in this country unethical who cannot even negotiate cheaper doctors’ visits for a whole bunch of New Zealanders and who will not even condemn the disgusting pictures that a union printed to try to exploit public opinion in favour of its wage claim. He did absolutely nothing.  
There is no leadership whatsoever from the Minister of Health—the hapless health Minister Pete Hodgson. There is nothing from this Government to deal with the general practitioner crisis. There is not a word on increasing the number of training places in our medical schools for general practitioners with additional rural and community training. There is not a word from this Government about trying to provide some loan write-offs to get general practitioners to areas that are hard to staff. And there is not a word on doing the single most important thing to keep our health workforce here which is cut personal taxes.  
Another most pressing issue facing the health sector today is the cruel contradiction in our health service that the Government wants more people to go to the doctor but if they go to the doctor and are found to be sick it does not want them anywhere near a hospital waiting list. Tens of thousands of New Zealanders are being dumped from hospital waiting lists in this country every day. Senior medical specialists have described the Government’s policy as dangerous and risky. Senior medical specialists have said it is being done for financial rather than medical reasons. Would members ever expect that under a so-called caring Labour Government senior medical specialists would be saying that the Labour Party is putting finance before patients? I am not surprised. We had women dying of breast cancer and the woman Prime Minister and the woman who was the previous Minister of Health did nothing. The woman Prime Minister and the woman who was the previous Minister of Health allowed women not to get treatment for breast cancer. They did nothing for months until National Party members said the women should be treated. They were sent to Australia. Our woman Prime Minister and the woman who was the previous Minister of Health did nothing until National Party members said those women should be given care. That is how Labour responds in the health system. The only reason it is doing anything is that the National Party is holding it to account. Members should expect some action from the Government—a few plans—on the general practitioner workforce within months. Because we are going on about it the Government will act on it. Members should expect some further action on elective surgery within the next 6 months. We are going on about it and it will have to happen because this Government worries about it. 
I tell the Government that the next area of waste that the “Prime Money Waster” and the “Wastemaster-General” should look at is the huge bloated bureaucracies in New Zealand’s public health system. Here is the other deceit: before the 1999 election Helen Clark said Labour would strip out layers of management from the public health sector. The fact is that there have been 2000 extra bureaucrats in the last 6 years. But the Government tells us that it has employed 5500 more doctors and nurses. One does not need a new manager for every two nurses but that is what Labour has done. What is worse that waste—and so much of it is waste—now totals over half a billion dollars. [ 
Interruption 
] There are a couple of little chirps from the person who lives in Petone and wants to be the MP for Gisborne. The fact is that Labour has no idea of the value of a dollar. We desperately need as much money as possible to deal with the hundreds of patients who this week alone have been dumped off hospital waiting lists. The worst part is that those people had been to see their general practitioners who said they needed to see a specialist. But they are being sent back to the general practitioner—the very person who said they needed to see a specialist. 
The most appalling list being culled is the one of people who according to the specialist need an operation and meet the points to get an operation. But the Government will still cull those people from the waiting list because the money is being wasted on a whole lot of Treaty nonsense political correctness and a whole lot of bureaucrats who are unnecessary—$500 million. Talkback radio callers went stupid on this issue and I do not blame them. There is $500 million of health manager bureaucracy in this country and Damien O’Connor said it was all about transparency accountability and efficiency. There is nothing efficient about employing one new administrator for every two nurses. There is nothing efficient about there being two administrators for every new doctor. It just does not make sense. This Government— 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Face us when you talk to us. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Maybe we will hear from Mr Cunliffe. I bet that he will not talk about Telecom. 
This Budget offered nothing to the health sector. New Zealanders were looking for some vision. The Minister of Health has tried to redeem himself from the clumsy and foolish 8 months he has spent not being able to get on the front foot in health but there has been nothing. The most pressing issues include the general practitioner crisis that is befalling this country. Very soon there will be 2 3 or 4-day waits to see a general practitioner. People in Gisborne cannot get on a general practitioner’s roll people in Timaru are having trouble and several hundred people on the Kapiti coast cannot get to see a general practitioner. The Government has done nothing about that nothing has been done about the blowout of the hospital bureaucracy and there has not been a word from this Government about dealing with the tens of thousands of New Zealanders being dumped from hospital waiting lists.