Dyson Ruth: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
Dyson Ruth: Debate on Budget Policy Statement 
[Volume:653;Page:2077] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 A large number of people around the country will be asking: “Who was that man?” and the rest will be saying: “Who cares?”. But for those who did not know the previous speaker was Steven Joyce; his next aim is to be the Minister of Finance. I ask Bill English after his speech to the House during this debate and after Mr Joyce’s speech whether we could please have a third alternative. In the remaining term of this Government I think Mr Dunne is looking positively dynamic compared to those two. 
That was a dreary speech from a dreary member but the worst part about it was that it was full of inaccuracies. The themes of this Government have been built on myths. They are myths that are slowly being broken by people realising that what they have been told time after time—by the hacks in the media who are National supporters by National MPs themselves and by the tragic people who have nothing better to do than to repeat those myths on talkback—is not true. People who have been hearing the myths time after time are now saying to Labour that those things are not true. It is not true that this Government inherited a shattered economy. We had almost the lowest debt level as a percentage of GDP—17 percent—in the entire world. Other countries would be cutting their throats to get to that position yet Bill English says that this is a terrible position for National to have inherited. For quarter after quarter after quarter we had the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD and we did not get much above 4 percent towards the end of last year when we knew the economy was slowing down. With that low level of debt as a percentage of GDP and a fantastically low unemployment rate how can the National - ACT Government say that it inherited a bad economy? It is just not true. Some members further display their ignorance if it was not already obvious to everyone by repeating that myth. 
The second myth that is being absolutely shattered around the country is that Labour left a whole lot of holes in the financial reporting. Well Bill English himself had to front up to that at the Finance and Expenditure Committee. He said that was not true and it was exactly as National would have reported it. Government members know that the unfunded liability stories that they have been telling are not true. They know that everything on the public record is exactly as it was when they became the Government. There were no tricks there were no holes and they did not inherit a bad economy. 
The third myth that has been absolutely exploded around the country is that John Key has a vision and a plan. Members might recall before the election—and subsequent to that as well—that the current Prime Minister modestly compared himself to Barack Obama. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Yes and Steven Joyce is Dick Cheney. 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: John Key often referred to “Barack and I”—as Steven was telling him to say—as if he was part of Barack Obama’s little fingernail. That is what we thought he was doing. We thought that was what he was saying about the incoming President of the US. It is clear now—if members want to be correct about the comparison—that John Key is like George Bush; there is no comparison between John Key and Barack Obama. Barack Obama had “Change You Can Believe In”. He is determined to support the citizens of his country whereas John Key just likes the comparison and has no idea no vision and certainly no plan. 
Nowhere is that more evident than in the health portfolio that I have been given responsibility for in the Labour Opposition. In the House this afternoon I asked the Minister of Health Tony Ryall about cuts to services that have come as a direct result of his letters of expectations to district health boards around our country. The Minister just shrugged it off. He just smiled and said “Well that’s all your fault”. Actually nobody on this side of the House wrote those letters of expectations. Tony Ryall’s signature is on the bottom of the letters; it is his words that have caused direct service cuts. Then he laughed when I asked about the women from Westport Waimangaroa and Karamea who instead of having a mobile breast-screening unit that could come almost literally to their very doors now have to drive to Greymouth and back in order to get breast screenings. That situation was raised by Labour members when we were on the West Coast and as a result of those representations the Minister has been forced to take action. Until Labour members raised it during our visit to the West Coast nothing at all was being done. Worse than that Tony Ryall laughed in the House. I do not think it is funny when women who were getting access to breast-screening clinics outside their doors are now forced to drive for over 2 hours to Greymouth in their own time and at their own expense. [ 
Interruption 
] I ask Mr Joyce whether he thinks it is funny too. On this side of the House we do not think that people having their access to services cut is a funny thing or a good thing; nor is it something that can be shafted home to the previous Government because that is just not true. Everyone in New Zealand knows exactly what the state of the public health system is. Continuing cuts and blaming it on Labour is just not a runner. 
Service cuts have been predicted for Taranaki. I do not even know who the member of Parliament is for that area but I know for certain that he has not raised a single issue with the Minister of Health in this House. So it is all right for the people in Taranaki to have health services cut and for the member of Parliament to say nothing. Harry Duynhoven the previous member for New Plymouth would have been in this House demanding answers from the Minister of Health if any cuts had been made to health services under his watch. In Tai Rawhiti 20 fewer staff members are to be employed. Has the current member for East Coast raised that issue at all in this House? No there has been no representation from Anne Tolley the member of Parliament responsible for that area. She has left it entirely up to Moana Mackey to work with the district health board and with the workforce to ensure that those jobs are protected. How will having 20 fewer staff in the Tairawhiti District Health Board area improve access to health services for that population? 
In Otago people over 65 have had their access to home support services cut. What have any of the people in Otago done that is so bad that their measly hours of support—sometimes only 1 2 or 3 hours—have been cut to nothing? Those hours are nothing at all; they are a drop in the bucket in the overall health budget. But for those elderly men and women sitting at home and knowing that they will get their laundry done that they will get some support with meals and that they might get their cleaning done it is the difference between them having quality of life and living in their own home or having to go into a rest home. That choice is being taken away from them by Tony Ryall because his letter of expectations has forced the Otago District Health Board to cut home support services to some of the most vulnerable people in our community. I do not think that is a laughing matter either. The Minister of Health laughed at those over-65-year-olds those elderly people who are often frail and who are just asking for 1 or 2 hours of home support to enable them to live in dignity with some independence in their own homes. 
The people of the West Coast as we know have not only had the situation where the poor old Minister was caught on the back foot and did not know about the women from Karamea and Westport having to go right down to Greymouth for their breast screenings; they have also had significant cuts to their elective surgery—their orthopaedic surgery. They said on public record that it was solely as a result of the letter of expectations from the Minister of Health. Many many people on the West Coast who are waiting for their hip replacements or their knee replacements have now had their surgery cancelled and have no idea when their surgery will be performed. Has the member of Parliament for West Coast - Tasman come into this House and raised a single issue with the Minister of Health? No he has not. On every occasion those members who paraded around those electorates prior to the election saying “I’ll be your voice in Wellington” have not been seen or heard of since and at exactly the same time the services that their constituents have relied on year after year are just being whipped away from under their feet.