Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
Coleman Jonathan: Debate on Crown Entities Public Organisations and State Enterprises — In Committee 
[Volume:654;Page:3777] 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to rise and speak in this debate because a couple of things need to be corrected and put on the record. First of all it is incredibly ironic that Labour members have chosen to debate the Mental Health Commission. Of all the entities they could have put up they want to put up the Mental Health Commission and place a big fat target on its back. Quite frankly the previous Government’s performance over 9 years on mental health was absolutely abysmal. 
Hon Annette King 
: It was fantastic! 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: You see Labour members are the only ones saying that. They spent $1 billion they extended spending by 75 percent and was anyone better off in terms of their mental health by the end of it? Absolutely not. We can tell by the way that mob is shouting that they know it is absolutely true. If those members talked to the families of mental health patients if they talked to the patients themselves they would hear them say that they were let down by the previous Government. Quite frankly it is pathetic for those members to go on about the axing of Labour’s bureaucratic target. The target was that 80 percent of long-term patients should have a long-term relapse prevention plan. If that target was the sum total of Labour’s plan in mental health it was pathetic. 
When we look at what National inherited from that mob it is incredible. We have to narrow down those targets to crucial stuff that makes a difference. This is what we inherited from Labour: a system overburdened with 13 health priorities 61 objectives an additional subset of 13 health objectives a set of 10 health targets measured through 18 indicators 25 other indicators of district health board performance—not to mention four hospital benchmark indicators assessed through 15 measures and an outcomes framework with nine outcomes measured against 39 headline indicators. No wonder morale in the mental health service is absolutely at rock bottom. Those people focused on meaningless targets but if they had spent some time focused on what would make a difference in mental health they would have focused on very different stuff. 
The Labour Government had 9 years but it did nothing to get mental health into primary care—absolutely nothing. It was the families of mental health patients who had to carry the can when that failed Government failed to provide the access to services that were needed. If Labour members talked to ordinary New Zealanders rather than viewing everything through a political lens they—and Mr Lees-Galloway—would know that it is the families who are left to carry the can. When people cannot get into hospitals when they cannot access primary care when they cannot get to the services—whether the patients are Maori Pacific Island elderly or children—it is the families who carry the can. [ 
Interruption 
] Labour members would not be shouting like this if those comments were not true. 
Mr Lees-Galloway is buying into the propaganda. He has been in Parliament for 6 months and already he believes the rhetoric. He said there were funding cuts in health. Why does he not tell members about the $26 million that National has announced to treat people who have eating disorders? It is because he is ashamed. He joined the Labour Party and he knows that Government did nothing for people with eating disorders. It had 9 years it had plenty of opportunity but it did not do it. It absolutely did not do it because there were no votes amongst the anorexic. It was not a politically pressure-pointed issue for Labour. It was an absolutely shameful performance. Now with this $26 million—$6.5 million in this year’s Budget—there is finally some relief for those families with children with anorexia who were never listened to by the previous Government. Labour members have gone quiet because they know the truth; they are ashamed. 
I tell members that Labour’s record on Maori mental health was pathetic. Maori could not get the access to services under the last Government. Why was that? It was because Labour had written off Maori at the ballot box. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: What are you going to do Jonathan—one thing? 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Ruth Dyson asked for one thing; one thing is $26 million for eating disorders. That is a priority for this Government in this Budget—health and mental health. There is more money and it is new money. Labour members know that and they are ashamed because they let down ordinary New Zealanders over a much-extended period. 
We remember the debate on the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill back in 2007. We remember in the Health Committee listening to family after family—[ 
Interruption 
]. Well that guy opposite does not have an eating disorder. Those families could not get access to the services that were needed. They told us that the Mental Health Commission had become ideologically bound up under the previous Government. The commission had lost sight of what it was trying to do in mental health it had lost sight of the interests of patients and families—it was ideologically captured. And what did the previous Government do? It just went along with it for way way too long until the pressure built to such a level that the Government could no longer ignore it. 
In the debate on the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill National members said they wanted to have a review clause after 3 years to see whether the Mental Health Commission should have its life extended. I am happy to say that under this new National Government the commission will be doing a great job advocating not only for patients but also for families. 
There is plenty of money in mental health; the problem under the previous lot was that the money was tied up in meaningless bureaucracy. Labour spent so much money and did not know where it was going. When I was in Opposition I asked the district health boards what had happened to the $300 million spent on non-governmental organisations. And do members know what? They could tell us they were spending the money they could tell us which district health boards it went to they could tell us where the money went to from the district health boards in terms of the non-governmental organisations but they could not tell us what it produced. So when Mr Lees-Galloway gets up and talks about cuts in funding it is a complete inaccuracy. 
I can tell members what happened. Pete Hodgson as Minister of Health was given a report by the non-governmental organisations saying that that system was unsustainable because of what the Labour Government was doing to it. And—do members know—he never released that report. Why did Pete Hodgson not want that report to undergo the disinfectant of the light of day? He did not because it showed that the Labour Government had spent $1 billion on mental health it had upped the amount by 75 percent over the 10 years but people were getting less access to services not more. The money was tied up in bureaucracy and no one knew where the money was going. It was an absolute disgrace and it was letting down New Zealanders. 
We only have to do a flick through our media file to see the failings of the last Labour Government in terms of mental health. Look at Hillmorton Hospital—that was a disgrace. Look at the Auckland City Hospital acute unit; again those guys failed. They had 9 years to do something about it and there was nothing they could do—another disgrace. Look at what happened over Lake Alice Hospital. When the Labour Government was in power Cabinet clipped the compensation for the Lake Alice Hospital patients. The Government thought it could get away with that dirty little secret; it was an absolute disgrace. It took $3 million from the most vulnerable people in New Zealand society and it thought it could get away with it. But no the patients themselves brought it to the light of day—the disinfectant of sunlight—and the Labour Government finally had to cough up. 
When Labour members are stupid enough to bring up the Mental Health Commission and open up the debate on mental health one really has to wonder who is calling the strategy shots on the opposite side. When one looks at Labour’s performance in the Chamber over the past 6 months in terms of health in general there have been very very few questions on health. There has not been a single question on mental health and I do not know who made this decision today to actually bring up— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That is Melissa Lee’s fired minder! 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Oh it is the sad old man of the House—Trevor Mallard. He has stirred from his stupor to weigh into a debate that he knows nothing about. The pathetic so-called kaumatua has nothing to add to this debate I can tell members now. 
I go back to the central point which is that $1 billion a year was spent on mental health under those guys opposite. People had less access to services not more. People were not able to get their relatives into acute care when they needed to. The care-in-the-community model had a lot of holes in it. A lot of people were left on the street and families picked up the can. There is no question that when Labour was in Government the only thing it would react to was political pressure. It would do nothing until the pressure was so bad at the ballot box that it could not hold off any longer. National has been in Government for 6 months and what have we done? We have put $26 million into aiding people with eating disorders—that is Labour’s shame. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: The work was done under Labour. I did that work! 
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Labour never would have done it; that is its shame. National will make sure that we have better primary-care mental health services. We will make sure that people can get the care they need and I tell members that mental health services will be much much better.