3. Question No. 3—Prime MinisterRt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 3—Prime Minister3. Rt Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Prime Minister): Yes and especially our action to deliver tax relief starting today. Governments of every stripe have delivered tax relief going back many many years—National Governments and Labour Governments. Why? Well I think the member summed it up perfectly this morning when he actually said Bracket adjustment is a legitimate thing to do and I think it's a sensible thing to do." I'd just say if he keeps saying sensible things like that he could join the National Party and finally let Kieran McAnulty have his time in the sun! I'm proud that after 14 years this Government has done this sensible thing the practical thing the common-sense thing and actually delivered tax relief to working New Zealanders—with the cost of living—starting today.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why did his Government remove the financial sustainability priority in the Government's health policy statement?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well again I read that from the member. I saw he had a go at it this morning. I'd just say to him that the letter of expectation is incredibly clear about financial performance as is also the Government policy statement. I would just say to him that I think if you're just looking at Politico that's probably not the right way to go about it.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Who advised him and Shane Reti that Health New Zealand moving into deficit in April this year was due to "back-office bloat" when the chief executive of Health New Zealand said that it was a result of hiring more nurses?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well I'd just say it is ironic—it is ironic—after six years that member has the audacity to ask about a question about the healthcare system that he presided over and ran into the ground. So I want to be really clear: there are way too many layers of management there are 2500 management back-office function people that are there and there's a big division between the front line and the decision makers. Again there has been financial unreliability in the reporting for some time; we are now fixing that. We're putting a commissioner in and putting the controls in place that that member didn't do.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. I asked the Prime Minister who advised him of that. He hasn't addressed that. He spent a lot of time attacking the last Government. I asked him who advised him.SPEAKER: Well with all due respect you took the point of order before he actually had concluded. Even though it was a lengthy answer I think we'll give the Prime Minister another shot.Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: All I'd just say to that member as I've said publicly Health New Zealand's problems have been financial unreliability and poor performance and poor financial reporting for some time. It has been unreliable and inconsistent. It was in March that we started to understand there was a rising deficit and as a result we took action with the commissioner last week.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: He did say it was in March when he took advice.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: That's interesting but from who?SPEAKER: Well that's not necessarily what you can extract; it's like asking for a yes or no.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: All right then. Well in light of his last answer why did he say that he first became aware of financial problems at Health New Zealand in October 2023 when his health Minister said that he first became aware five months later in March 2024 a claim that he has now just repeated?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: As I have said to the member the financial performance and monitoring has been incredibly poor and unreliable. We had a letter which we released in the middle of March saying that they were on track for delivering a surplus. That very quickly deteriorated into a deficit between that period and the appointment of a commissioner. You would remember that there was an annual report before this Government came to power in October saying that there was a potential deficit in health. We've had a surplus a deficit a surplus a deficit. What we've got is poor financial reporting. Why is that? It's because the previous Government did not actually merge into one entity the 21 district health boards and just whacked 2500 people over the top of it.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: How does he reconcile that statement that he just made with the statement Shane Reti made yesterday: "We were getting monthly … and quarterly reports from Health New Zealand and the Ministry of Health … And … they were predicting they were on task for the savings target."?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Because they were. If you look at the letter that the Minister of Finance released as of I think 20 March or somewhere around that window of time they were forecasting a slightly smaller surplus but then they projected a deficit going forward in one month. That speaks to the financial performance the unreliability of the data and the poor controls in place. It's because the previous administration had a botched restructure didn't know how to run anything—we saw it with Te Pūkenga we've seen it now with Health New Zealand we've seen it with disability services. The previous Government didn't know how to run things; we do know how to run things. We're sorting it out.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Why has the Government frozen relocation costs for overseas doctors driving many to abandon their job applications when we've got understaffed hospitals like Dargaville who can't find doctors at all?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Well there is no hiring freeze. As that member well knows and it is not new and I acknowledge that there are challenges with recruiting health workforce in rural settings but that is a function of a botched health merger We are doing everything we can to home-grow doctors as well as open up our immigration settings to do so. But I just remember when that member was in Government thinking about Rāwene Hospital which had the same problem about finding rural workforce. That is work that we're still working hard on.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. As with many of his answers almost the entirety of the Prime Minister's answer has been about things that he alleges happened under the last Government. The freeze on relocation costs is something that has recently been imposed under his Government and I asked him why they did that. I didn't ask him about the previous Government's recruitment efforts; I asked him about his Government's recruitment efforts.SPEAKER: I know but it might be perfectly reasonable in explaining why to go into reasons that would go back in time and the Standing Orders do allow that.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Yeah but he didn't.SPEAKER: Well once again you were on your feet pretty quickly. He was still talking at the time that you called your point of order. Would the Prime Minister like to add to that answer?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: As I said there is no hiring freeze.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Point of order Mr Speaker. I didn't ask the Prime Minister whether there was a hiring freeze even though there are reports that there is but I asked him why Health New Zealand has frozen relocation costs for overseas doctors. It was a pretty straight question.SPEAKER: Well then ask it again.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: Very good. Thank you Mr Speaker. Why has Health New Zealand frozen relocation costs for overseas doctors driving many to abandon job applications when we've got understaffed hospitals like Dargaville that can't find a doctor at all?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: As I have said to that member we have worked and will continue to work on making sure we get workforce into the New Zealand healthcare system. We are growing our home-grown doctors. We have got open immigration settings to bring doctors from overseas here. We have made good progress. There are 2900 extra nurses in the system than there were 12 months ago. We know it's challenging getting workforce into rural settings but we'll continue to work hard at it.Rt Hon Chris Hipkins: How many doctors' salaries could the Government fund for the over $200 million in tax breaks they have just given to tobacco companies?Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: Again I would just say that it is very rich from that member who actually created a situation and is now criticising us for trying to solve the problem. We have a put a record $16.7 billion into the healthcare system—much more than the previous administration was planning in your fiscal track documents at the election."