Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Bradford Sue: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:625;Page:20363] 
6.  
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Health 
: Why nearly six years after the Government took office has the report of the Working Party on Support Services for Older People and People with Disabilities found these services to be chronically under-funded and suffering huge workforce turnover with many providing inadequate care? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 The working party report itself answers the member’s question. Page 6 lists the factors as including increased demand higher expectation inflation and more employment opportunities for those working in the sector. 
Sue Bradford 
: What advice can he offer a Waikato residential care facility that has had five of 14 registered nurses resign in the past month and has been able to replace only one of them; and how does he expect facilities like that to retain staff when wage rates offered by aged-care facilities are up to 20 percent lower than those paid by district health boards? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: My advice would be to remind those people or indeed the member that the Government has put into that broader sector around $50 million outside the Budget cycle this year and that next year’s Budget is next week. 
Sue Bradford 
: Why does the Government not simply set minimum standards for workers’ wages and conditions and any other appropriate matters then allow providers and district health boards to enter genuine negotiations with each other in accordance with local circumstances? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: We do it is called the minimum wage and it has been raised annually ever since this Government came to office. 
Marc Alexander 
: Will the Minister take seriously the report of the Working Party on Support Services for Older People and People with Disabilities by raising funding to a sustainable level for the aged-care and disability services sector or is that just another report designed to fool people into thinking this Government is doing something simply by having a report which will collect dust and translate into nothing of substance? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I regret to advise the member that he should have read the accompanying Cabinet paper that came out at the same time which would have told the member over what period of time the issue of sustainable funding would be determined so that funding at a sustainable level could occur. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Can he assure the House that any upcoming funding will provide pay parity between carers in the aged-care sector who currently receive $10.80 an hour and health-care assistants based in public hospitals who receive $16.50 an hour; if not how does he expect to put a stop to the mass exodus of experienced staff? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: I do not believe that there is a mass exodus although I do acknowledge that there is a very high turnover rate. I hope that Budget announcements to be made next week will begin to address that. 
Sue Bradford 
: Will funding increases for the 45000 residential and home-based caregivers be ring-fenced to ensure pay parity between all district health board - funded caregivers; if not what compliance measures will the Government put into place to ensure that increased funding leads to increased wages for the workers—minimum wage controls being manifestly inadequate in that situation? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: The member may be aware that district health boards that provide for the health of older people already have—at least some of them have—a number of conditions in their contracts that ensure that wages flow through to workers.