Stewart Barbara: Budget Debate 
Stewart Barbara: Budget Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21082] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 On behalf of New Zealand First I rise to speak to the health section of the Budget. New Zealand First believes that health is a critical investment in our people and we need and we want a properly funded and resourced public health service. New Zealand First believes that we should be seeing increased funding for health. We want to see health funding reach comparable levels with European nations such as France which spends around 10 percent of GDP on health. There is a lot of work to be done in the health area—a lot of work. That was emphasised in the recent  
New Zealand Herald  
polls that showed that very few voters believe that the hospital services have improved despite the extra billions of dollars that the Government has spent and that health continues to be one of the areas of greatest concern; in fact it is a No. 1 concern. 
The increases in the health budget will not provide any solutions to the many health problems that New Zealanders have and they barely allow the sector to actually tread water. When we heard that there was to be a deep dark secret in the 2005 Budget I had hoped that it was going to be in the health area. I was particularly looking for action on children’s health. After all is said and done we have a Working for Families package so it was logical to consider that with a focus on families the health of children and young people would also be a priority in the increased health vote. We had hoped that the price of visits to general practitioners for children and the elderly could be reduced because we know that hospitalisation can be reduced for those two groups. But we were disappointed. There was nothing in that area at all. One would never have believed— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: The member always wants to spend. 
BARBARA STEWART 
: We do want to spend more. We would never have believed that with a Labour Government we would see the establishment of a charity hospital in Christchurch. While that is an example of the generosity and dedication of the medical profession it is basically a response to the failure of the public hospital system to provide early intervention treatment. Without early intervention it is likely that the conditions of those patients would deteriorate and their pain and suffering would increase. The greater significance of that charity hospital is the wake-up call it must give to the Government. 
In my wish list for election year I expectantly looked to see some money put aside for oral health. Again I was disappointed. We know that the current system is not meeting the demands of children and teenagers. This area is under pressure. There is an overall shortage of resources—a shortage of resources that was not met in this Budget either. This is one area that I believe that the Minister of Health would have been very keen to resolve. There is no hope of getting on top of the problems that exist in this area unless there is considerable investment. But no there is not a mention for this area at all. All the surveys show that children’s teeth are deteriorating and that rapid action is needed. We really need to see some action here. We still have no money set aside for our teenagers’ oral health. It is a well known fact that dentists find teenagers uneconomical to treat and the number of dentists who now provide free dental treatment for adolescents is minimal. That situation requires urgent attention and we are looking for a lot of action in that area. 
We had also hoped that money would be set aside to retain our medical doctors in New Zealand. What is the point of training up our doctors nurses pharmacists and other medical professionals to actually export them overseas? We know that every hospital needs trained medical staff and it is to be hoped that the Minister resolves the situation before it goes from serious to critical.