Barry Maggie: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 May 2014. Volume:698;Page:17582. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Next Thursday our Minister of Finance the Hon Bill English will be presenting his sixth Budget and like our newly minted Minister Nicky Wagner—congratulations—I have a good feeling about thisBudget. Already we have seen some good initiatives coming through and that is only the start of what is to come.For my part I would like to concentrate in this call on what this John Key National-led Government is doing for senior citizens in New Zealand the people who are very vulnerable at the last stages of their lives. This year for example we are going to invest more than $1.55 billion in aged care. This is an increase of over 60 percent under Labour—$1.55 billion. So we are spending more on respite care carer support day programmes for older people and a lot of other initiatives that really will make a difference to the quality of life of our seniors.One example is that we have developed a new clinical assessment tool for aged care providers. This ensures that each resident in residential care will get up to two nationally consistent clinical assessment tests twice a year or more if their health suffers. That is the kind of thing that really is important because older people’s health does change quite dramatically and quite suddenly so that is an important initiative as is in this space a national minimum standard which will mean the same level of care is going to be expected from providers across New Zealand. Again this is a very important initiative and we have tightened up on a lot of the regulations around residential care. Across the board across this country in every electorate and in every home you can relax in the knowledge that New Zealand seniors are going to be better looked after.Elder abuse in my opinion has been a shameful secret for far too long and this John Key National-led Government is very committed to confronting elder abuse. We are actively encouraging police to work more closely with partner organisations such as Age Concern which already does a very good job but there is not enough sharing of information. There are too many silos around this kind of thing so we are breaking those down. We want to improve the responses to elder abuse.The new Crimes Amendment Act for example which came into effect in 2012 makes it an offence with a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison to not take reasonable steps to protect a child or a vulnerable adult. We are focusing on older New Zealanders’ health and well-being. In my own North Shore electorate I have seen plenty of examples of that. We have invested in the past few years more than $200 million in new facilities and new services. Gone are the dark days under Labour’s incompetent Minister of Health Annette King when we saw long waiting lists people going to Australia for cancer treatment and just horrific situations—terrible situations. But under the Hon Tony Ryall that has all changed.In North Shore Hospital for example we have just put in a state-of-the-art elective surgery centre. We have a new emergency department and a new cardiology centre. Last week I opened up a $3.5 million community dialysis centre. This is the sort of thing that makes an enormous difference to people’s lives and it is complemented by the dialysis centre on the North Shore Hospital site which the Minister of Health Tony Ryall opened a couple of years ago. So there has been a lot of spending—some $200 million on that one example of one hospital—but it does not stop there.There are indeed a lot of things happening in terms of superannuation. In just over 5 years of a National Government the married rate of superannuation has gone up by $183.88 a fortnight and the single living alone payment has increased by $125.10 a fortnight. That equates to a 25 percent increase since April 2008. We stick with a plan. We make one we stick with it and we stick with our promises. Our Prime Minister John Key has undertaken to the people of New Zealand that we will maintain the married rate of superannuation at 66 percent of the average wage and under our watch the age of eligibility will remain at 65.TheSuperGold card started out with very very humble beginnings and now we see that there are more than 10000 outlets in New Zealand that are involved inSuperGold. Businesses range from pharmacies and dentists to transport and utility services.Denis O’Rourke: It’s not a National Government achievement. That’s a New Zealand First achievement.MAGGIE BARRY: So from extremely humble beginnings we have managed to crank it up. It is also now across Australia as well so New Zealand seniors can go across to Australia and receive a range of commercial discounts that are the same as those that Australian seniors receive. So since 2010 our Government has not justmithered on about it and sort of suggested it and then left well alone as one of the members who was heckling before was indicating—he was trying to claim the credit for it. We have invested $68.6 million in theSuperGold card scheme and next week in the Budget we will see even more exciting initiatives that will mean a brighter future for New Zealanders. Thank you.