Hide Rodney: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
Hide Rodney: Supplementary Estimates — Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:626;Page:21270] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 For the benefit of anyone who is still listening at the end of that speech I will say it was from Steve Maharey—the smarmy one as described by his former ministerial colleague John Tamihere. I remember John Tamihere telling the nation that he went to meetings with the smarmy one and was given copious notes but when he came out they did not add up to anything—there was no substance. We saw that with Steve Maharey in his speech today. We heard Mr Maharey talk about the Budget as being a good use of money and talk about the results of that. We saw last week the human face of Labour’s health policy and we saw the response from Labour when confronted with the human face of its failed health policy. 
Let me remind members what that response was. A man with Huntington’s disease was in pain and when he went to the dentist he was unable to get his teeth attended to. He was stuck on a waiting list for more than a year. That was the promise of the health waiting system—to wait more than a year because his case was said to be semi-urgent. Wellington Hospital told him that there were people in far more pain than him and that he should be happy to wait a year. When that case was raised in the House we saw the response of the caring Minister of Health. Her response was to get the man’s records and say that he was not in pain! Well that was news to him. That was news to his mum. [ 
Interruption 
] The Minister of Health laughs now. She thinks that is funny because she got away with it. Then she told the House that the man had gone to his dentist on a routine check-up. Well that was not true and the Minister now knows it was not true. The man went to the dentist because he had toothache and he had to wait a year to get it attended to in her health system. 
What has happened now? The Minister met with the man’s mother in her office. She got home and suddenly someone from our health system was on the phone wanting to see Alvin to look at his teeth and yes he has a date. Why? It is because Annette King was embarrassed. But the sad thing about it is that Alvin is just one of 180— 
Jill Pettis 
: The member would just say “Go private.” 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The member they refer to in the Labour caucus—I am sure in a kind and endearing way—as “paint stripper” or “fish wife” yells out because she does not want to hear about people and the results of the Government’s health policy. Why does she not just listen and try to help people for a change? The problem is that we got help for Alvin but 180000 people are queued up on our health waiting lists. 
Let me walk through the numbers in this Budget. In 1999 the health budget was $6.1 billion. It is now $9.7 billion. It has increased—[ 
Interruption 
] Jill Pettis yells out about how marvellous that is because being a lefty she thinks that spending money is a good thing as long as it is other people’s money. Health spending has increased by $3.6 billion a year or 57 percent. One might say: “Wow I bet that bought a lot of operations.” The figures show that we have increased the number of operations by 1.3 percent. Let us think about it. Annette King has increased the health budget by 57 percent to increase the number of operations by 1.3 percent. What a useless Minister of Health she is. And members should get this: the number of New Zealanders has increased by 4.3 percent so the number of operations per capita has gone backwards. 
Back in 1999 Annette King said that the waiting list of 96000 was criminal. Now she does not release the numbers. We have had to work for—[ 
Interruption 
] The Minister looks up. She knows that is a fact. We have had to— 
Hon Annette King 
: That’s a lie. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The Minister can call out that I am lying. We have the dose on her because she has in this House. The waiting list was 96000. The budget was increased by $3.6 billion but what has happened to the health waiting list? It has blown up to 180000. The number of people on the waiting list has— 
Hon Annette King 
: What rubbish! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Annette King calls out that that is rubbish. We know why that is. It is because people now have to wait in order to get on to the waiting list. That is the reality of health under Annette King. She still cannot get over the fact that a man with toothache cannot get a $5000 operation in our health system without waiting at least a year. 
The number of people who died while on our health waiting lists was 850 in 1999. Last year under Annette King 1200 people died on our health waiting lists. Annette King sits there and laughs. She knows the numbers and she should not be laughing at them. 
Hon Annette King 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I am quite happy to sit here and listen to that drivel but I will not have that member say that I am laughing at the comments he is making. It is certainly true that I would laugh at him but not at the comments he is making. 
Madam DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: That is not a point of order. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: The Minister can sit there and—she has admitted it—laugh through her speech about the failure of her policy laugh at the people who are queued up in pain and laugh about people having to wait in order to get on the waiting list. Treasury itself says that the Minister is out of control. We have the report. It states that the Minister has blown the budget and that health spending is unsustainable. I have never seen a report like it. Treasury advised Michael Cullen to go back to Annette King and tell her to redo the numbers because her priorities were wrong and the Budget was under stress. We have seen the wasteful spending—$3.6 billion has been spent on health with no result. More people are waiting than ever before and more are upset with the health system than ever before. 
Then we have the prospect of tax cuts. Mike Williams told the people of New Zealand that there was a deep dark secret in the Budget and when I went into the lock-up I found it. It was a tax cut of $34. I thought wow that was not bad for someone in the 20c in the dollar tax-rate range. Then I looked at it again. I had thought the tax cut was $34 per week but it turned out that it was $34 per year—a packet of Wrigley’s chewing gum per week. Then I read a bit more and found that the cut would not occur until 2008. So people will receive a packet of chewing gum as a tax cut but they will have to wait 3 years for it under Labour. Michael Cullen says that he cannot afford tax cuts. I say to Michael Cullen Annette King and Clayton Cosgrove that New Zealanders cannot afford to keep paying their tax. They cannot afford to fund wananga hip-hop tours and million-dollar grants to rich American companies. They cannot afford to keep paying that tax and make ends meet. That is the situation in this Budget that we are voting on. Currently the Government’s spending total is $53 billion per year. In the next 5 years it is set to grow according to Michael Cullen to $73 billion per year. That is 45 percent faster than the rate the economy is growing at. This Government is forecasting Government spending to grow 45 percent faster than the rate the economy will grow at. 
I look at this figure. When we are thinking about what the Government can and cannot afford the key figure to look at is the net wealth of the Government. Currently the net wealth of the Government is $35.5 billion. That is the figure when we take all the assets the Government has and deduct all the liabilities. Our Government is solvent and is worth $35.5 billion. Over the next 5 years our Government’s net worth will be $63.1 billion. This Government is a rich Government. It is accumulating wealth at the expense of New Zealanders. The wealth of the Government is increasing at an astonishing $5.5 billion per year which interestingly matches the maximum cost of ACT’s tax policy. If we just held the net wealth of the Government constant we could pay for ACT’s policy. The net wealth of the Government is going up at the rate of 12 percent. That is all news to Clayton Cosgrove. He sits on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and is the only person who I noticed when I was on the committee could sleep while in the chair. It is unbelievable to watch. He actually does not follow anything that goes on in those debates. 
The Government’s wealth is growing by $5.5 billion per year. We can afford tax cuts. I say that the people of New Zealand cannot afford to keep paying for this Government and for the wasteful spending that we see. That is why they will give their party vote to ACT at the next election.