Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
Laban Luamanuvao Winnie: Financial Review Debate — In Committee 
[Volume:661;Page:9478] 
Hon LUAMANUVAO WINNIE LABAN (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Kia ora talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings. I stand to speak on the Appropriation (2008/09 Financial Review) Bill with a heavy heart and with sadness as I reflect on this National Government which continually uses rhetoric and nonsense over logic and common sense and which labels cuts as changes. 
Let me prepare a snapshot of some of the changes; we are talking about the impacts on our families our communities and our elders out there in the community. In March 2009 the Taranaki District Health Board publicly signalled that its hospital was preparing for cut-backs. In April 2009 the Southland District Health Board and the Otago District Health Board confirmed they were cutting home-based services in order to reduce costs. The boards were looking to make savings of up to $10 million by reducing home-based support for the elderly. In May 2009 their anti-obesity oral health and mental health targets were cut. National took $2.3 million out of cancer controls in Budget 2009. It has slashed the “Get Checked” Diabetes Aotearoa budget by $4.8 million each year. It has cut $3 million from the cardiovascular disease budget and mental health services have also had their funding cut. 
In June 2009 the Whanganui District Health Board said that it would be closing hospital wards at weekends to save money on nursing overtime. The Fruit in Schools programme which currently provides 100000 children with fresh fruit each day is under threat. In July 2009 the South Canterbury District Health Board said that it would be reducing the number of patients seen in its emergency department by up to 5000 people a year. In August 2009 there were cuts to elderly care in South Canterbury. Rest home care limits have annoyed general practitioners and Dunstan Hospital has reduced community physiotherapy and disability home support. In September 2009 $2 million was cut from mental health services in Nelson’s mental health funding. In October 2009 there were home support cuts for the elderly in Canterbury. I quote from the Christchurch  
Press 
: “Man 83 offers to clean shower with foot”. 
In November 2009 a total of 12.5 nursing positions were chopped across Palmerston North Hospital’s main surgical medical and child health wards. In December 2009 a survey showed that spending was down on general practitioner visits and on surgery. Research commissioned by Southern Cross Healthcare found that the number of people who visited their general practitioner when they felt unwell fell from 64 percent in 2008 to 56 percent in the following year and senior doctors voted overwhelmingly to focus on achieving a pathway to try to better conditions. In January this year Mary Bourke a district health board member was candid about the accident compensation squeeze. She said “So effectively madam chair what we are talking about here is that ACC is trying to cut down on its costs by shoving its responsibilities on to someone else?”. More than 1200 Canterbury elderly have had their home help hours cut or reduced since the new assessment service and we have numerous stories in part of my electorate the Mana electorate where home-based support cuts are being assessed via the telephone. We have heard these stories all over the country. What is really disturbing is the anxiety and stress that is caused. For example in my electorate of Mana 24 percent of Kapiti are over 65 years old and people are worried. If we look in terms of the elder example we see that we are actually talking about over 28000 people in rest home care and over 60000 people who receive home-based care. It is cheaper and much more cost-effective to continue to give that little bit of support to enable our elders to continue to live independently and in their own homes. 
At the end of the day this particular group is very important to our society because they hit us at a personal and intimate level. They are our parents they are our grandparents and they have contributed to and built society. Is that the sort of reciprocity we want? At the end of the day it is sad to see a lot of programmes that Labour embedded and which needed more time to continually produce the achievement levels they were already showing—