Coleman Jonathan: Address in ReplyText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeColeman Jonathan: Address in Reply[Sitting date: 21 October 2014. Volume:701;Page:54. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health):Mr Deputy Speaker I want to begin by congratulating you on your elevation to the deputy speakership. You have been a great member of our caucus over many years a good mate and we know that you will preside over this House with fairness and applying your intricate knowledge of Speakers’ rulings and Standing Orders.I also want to congratulate all the new members. There are plenty of them here behind me on the National side of the House tonight. You guys are in for a rewarding and interesting career. It is great to come in while the National Party is in Government because we have set out a very detailed and ambitious programme for New Zealand over the last 6 years and there is plenty to build on. But I want to congratulate the new members from all parties. This is a great place to come and exercise your skills but also of course to represent your electorates and the people of New Zealand.It was interesting to listen to that speech by Napier retread Mr Nash. I do want to congratulate him on winning his seat but if that is what we are in for over the next 3 years it is going to be a very long 3 years. There was nothing in that speech that was any different from what we heard on the campaign trail from David Cunliffe. Of course we all know what happened there. Mr Nash threatened us a bit. He said that there will be a vision. He said that stuff is coming but he was very short on the detail. It was very threatening of course to anyone holding a seat in the regions. I am sure Mr Deputy Speaker you are absolutely terrified by what you have just heard from Mr Nash. But we know the reality is that we have just had an election the result was decisive and the people of New Zealand have spoken.When looking across to the other side of the House today I just could not help but think that that is an Opposition that is really going through the five stages of loss and grief. I think we have seen that quite decisively over the past few weeks. The first stage happened on election night and that was denial and isolation. You saw a Labour leader up there giving a speech that would make you think they had actually won the election. Of course the isolation bit—well we know what happened next. Then the anger followed—the angry recriminations. By Monday morning the Labour Party was telling us that the guy they had been backing for the past year as the putative likely Prime Minister of New Zealand was actually no good after all. Someone had got something wrong. The guy they were trying to sell to the electorate on Friday 19 September was the guy who was absolutely useless by Monday 22 September. The anger had started.Then you got into the bargaining phase. You got all the horse trading and people saying this candidate and that candidate. At one stage we had more chiefs than people to boss over. You are looking now at a line-up of about four people in that camp looking for the leadership. So the bargaining has been on. Then I think they have been in the depressive phase. But finally today phase five hit. It was acceptance. You saw when they were sitting there how they had just rolled over completely. When the Labour Party members are nodding benignly agreeing with the Prime Minister wanting to be really friendly you know that they know they have completely lost it. It is a long long road back for Stuart Nash and Co.It is going to be an interesting 3 years. We took a very detailed programme to the electorate. We have been very clear about our priorities with balancing the books being No. 1. We are going to be back in surplus this year. Economic growth—Steven Joyce is an excellent Minister for Economic Development. He has led that Business Growth Agenda. There are 350 different initiatives there which we have been ticking off one by one. We have got a very good programme ahead. Our economic growth is now the envy of the Western World. Countries around the world are just longing to have the books that New Zealand has. We are in a very very good position. The people of New Zealand fully understood that going into the election. Of course rebuilding Christchurch—Labour was telling us that that was going to be the graveyard for the National Party. Well we even won the party vote out in Christchurch East. That is how much our party impacted in Christchurch. We decisively won that argument there. It was not on the basis of rhetoric; it was on the basis of solid progress over a long time in many different areas.Of course Better Public Services is the fourth thing we have committed to. We have said: “Look we are going to set very specific targets in hard-to-achieve areas.” We have got those five areas those 10 targets. We have said it is not about the money although more money has gone in under this Government to a whole range of difficult areas; it is actually about how the money is spent. It is about making Government relevant to the people in places like Glenfield the area I represent within the Northcote electorate and the people out in the suburbs all around New Zealand. We have made Government relevant to New Zealanders because in the end people vote on the basis of how their family is doing. Is there enough money in the pocket at the end of the week to do something a bit extra? Does the local area feel safe? Can you get the kids to the accident and emergency department at the hospital when they need something there? Are they happy with the local school? Those are the sorts of things we have focused on the things that really count for New Zealanders.I can tell you that my electorate of Northcote is always a place that is a barometer for how the Government is doing. That was once a seat that Labour held. It had been a seat that moved back and forward over the years. It is an excellent seat and it is where I live. I can tell you that it is now a seat where we hold both a party record and electorate majority. It has a bigger margin than any other party has ever held in that electorate. I want to thank the voters of Northcote for the faith they have shown in me but more specifically the faith they have shown in the National Party. That seat reflects what has changed over time in Auckland and in New Zealand. Seats where once the Labour Party had a change they have not got a hope in the proverbial now—absolutely no hope at all. So you can see that there has been a fundamental recalibration in the political climate. We have moved into the centre to where people’s concerns are being addressed and it is those basics such as education health law and order and the economy.I feel very honoured now to hold the health portfolio in this Government. It is a huge portfolio. There are many challenges ahead. But we have got a solid 6-year record which we are going to build on over the next 3 years. My predecessor did an excellent job in that role. He has been the most successful Minister of Health in the history of New Zealand. He pulled off some stunning successes when you look at what he inherited—a health system in disarray. What he did there was he focused very specifically on the things that matter to New Zealand. Look at the progress there—an extra 40000 elective procedures over the last 6 years and hundreds and hundreds more doctors and nurses in our district health boards. He focused very specifically on a set of six health targets and he said to the district health boards: “These are the expectations. This is what I expect you to achieve.” and he did that. There is more elective surgery more cancer care for sufferers of one of the biggest diseases in New Zealand a more effective cardiovascular disease and diabetes screening service and he has done great work on preventative medicine.But now with this new set of manifesto promises we have we are going to take it even further. We are rolling out free GP visits for under-13s. That is going to have a massive effect on the health of young New Zealanders. It is very widely accepted as a great idea. We have got a new cancer care target. Every New Zealander who goes to their general practitioner and is thought to have a serious diagnosis needing investigation will start their first treatment within 62 days. That is the international gold standard which is that 90 percent of Kiwis will be getting that level of care by June 2017. So that is going to be fantastic.An extra $50 million is going into bone and joint pain so we are actually looking at more elective surgery. We are looking at multidisciplinary pain teams to address that specific issue and that is going to make a big difference. We are also putting an extra $20 million into hospice so we are going to be funding multidisciplinary teams. There will be 60 new nurse educators across the system to actually help patients their families and those providing care out in the public system and the community.My first task has been to get around the 20 district health boards and we will have done that by Christmas. I can tell you that this is fundamentally a different health system than the one we inherited 6 years ago. We have got an enthused workforce. There are challenges but we have got people who realise that despite the fact that we have got a record amount of money going into health we have got to continue to rejig the system to reconfigure the services and to deliver the services that New Zealanders need.So I have got to tell you that it is great to be back in Parliament. We have set a great pace during the election and over the last 6 years. New Zealanders have shown fantastic faith in frankly the best Prime Minister I think this country has ever seen. There is a great path ahead but it is all bad for Labour. Thank you.