Parata Hekia: General Debate 
Parata Hekia: General Debate 
[Volume:676;Page:21735] 
Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister for Ethnic Affairs) 
: 
Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Otira tena tatou katoa. It has already been mentioned this afternoon that this is the last week of this Parliament. It has given me cause to think back to December 2008 when I had the honour to deliver my maiden speech and to reflect on whether my aspirations as articulated at that time have shown some meaningful gain over the 3 years of our Government. In December 2008 I talked about quality citizenship I talked about the characteristics of that and I talked about my hope that we would be able to deliver real and substantive change that would allow us to experience quality citizenship. I also talked about one of the significant challenges to our achieving that which was the disease of dependency the very kinds of policies and philosophy that characterise the other side of the House and the sorts of things that this Government came into power having to deal with the legacy of. 
Our Government in this 3 years I am proud to say has been able to focus on sustainable and systemic change. I want to give just a few highlights in fact and these are the facts that give the lie to the kinds of assertions that are often made by members on the other side of the House. In respect of the economy and the cost of living this Government has seen that floating mortgage rates are now about half of what they were under Labour. Three-quarters of all earners now pay a top tax rate of no more than 17.5 percent. After tax the average wage has increased 7.4 percent in the past year keeping wage growth well ahead of inflation at 5.3 percent. What did we see under Labour? Well I think New Zealanders are sick of the litany of statistics that peppered that administration but the statistics were all heading in the other direction. 
In education we will see 12500 places for 16 and 17-year-olds by 2014 including those in our trades academies and service academies—eight trades academies this year and 13 more in 2012. By 2014 4500 students a year will get practical skills and $550 million per year for the next 4 years will go into early childhood education. We are spending $14 billion on health this year. That is the most ever. There will be a thousand fewer back-office staff but 800 more doctors and 2000 more nurses. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: How many? 
Hon HEKIA PARATA 
: I am being asked how many. The news is so good that it bears repeating: 800 more doctors and 2000 more nurses. That is translated into 27000 more elective procedures a year compared with the number in 2008. There will be 500 more procedures every week and we have a target of 4000 extra procedures a year. There will be 1800 more doctors nurses and midwives signed up to our Voluntary Bonding Scheme in hard-to-staff areas and specialties and we will have 200 more places at medical schools by 2013. 
What did we have under Labour? There was another litany of failures including 30000 patients culled from hospital waiting lists. Some patients waited up to 15 weeks for cancer radiation treatment whereas under this Government we have now hit the world benchmark with the time from seeing a specialist to getting treatment being within 6 weeks. What we saw under Labour was 9 years of lost opportunities. What we have seen under this Government is 3 years of hard-fought-for opportunities when we have been in a world with a global financial crisis. 
Here in New Zealand we have suffered our own significant setbacks in terms of the Canterbury earthquakes the loss of life at Pike River and the failure of some of our financial and insurance institutions. Notwithstanding all of those challenges this Government under the leadership of Prime Minister John Key has been able to leverage as many positive and optimistic opportunities out of those as possible. Why? Because we are a Government focused on building a brighter future. We have an unassailable belief in the power of the potential of individuals their families and their communities. We completely understand that it is businesses that build growth and productivity and with that growth and productivity we can look forward to better jobs and higher incomes for more New Zealanders.