9. Health Ministry—Director-General of Health and Financial ManagementDr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of HealthHealth Ministry—Director-General of Health and Financial Management9. Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North) to the Minister of Health: What responsibility does he take as Minister of Health for his Director-General of Health who probably overreached a bit" as said by him in the House yesterday?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health): The responsibilities of Ministers and chief executives and the relationship between them are well established. Under the State Sector Act Public Service chief executives are employed by the State Services Commissioner and the commissioner is responsible for managing their performance in this role. The role of Ministers is set out in the Cabinet Manual which states at paragraph 3.7: "Ministers decide both the direction of and the priorities for their departments. They are generally not involved in their departments' day-to-day operations." The Cabinet Manual applies to the relationship between all Ministers and the Public Service and of course to my relationship as Minister of Health with Mr Chuah as the Director-General of Health.Dr David Clark: Does he think it is acceptable that the Director-General of Health the person in charge of his ministry does the opposite of what he wanted by telling district health board (DHB) leaders that they could keep the $38 million in funding that they had been incorrectly allocated by his ministry?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: We dealt with this yesterday and what I said at the time is that that allocation was a fraction of less than 1 percent of the total budget and Mr Chuah clearly felt that he could manage that within the $16.8 billion that health receives each year. As I said yesterday it was a bit of an overreach but you have got to look at the wider picture which is that Mr Chuah is involved in delivering more and more health services hundreds of which have improved over the system delivering 7000 more doctors 50000 more operations and 150000 more first specialist assessments.Dr David Clark: Has he asked his Director-General of Health why he told DHBs that they could keep the $38 million wrongly allocated?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well the focus has actually been on making sure that the error was corrected and that was my express decision that that should happen.Grant Robertson: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That was a very specific question and I do not believe it was addressed.Mr SPEAKER: On this occasion I will allow the question to be repeated.Dr David Clark: Has he asked his Director-General of Health why he told DHBs that they could keep the $38 million wrongly allocated?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Actually all the reports on this have been purely anecdotal and quite frankly I have not bothered having that conversation with him because I have been very focused on making sure that the error is corrected which it has been. You have got to remember it is a fraction of less than 1 percent of the total budget. I would refer the member over there to the Estimates to understand how they—Mr SPEAKER: No the question has now definitely been answered.Dr David Clark: Does he take responsibility for the Ministry of Health's failed proposed mental health Budget 2017 package which was described by Treasury as "assemblage of … bids … without an understanding of the mental health population [or] workforce"?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well the member knows very well that the Government allocated $224 million to mental health in the Budget and that is going to provide a wide range of services that will benefit New Zealanders. I mean the spending on mental health has increased from $1.3 billion to $1.4 billion over our time in Government and there has been a decrease in waiting times there are an extra 150 psychiatrists an extra 600 mental health nurses and a general focus on improving access to services.Dr David Clark: What responsibility does he take for the findings of the soon-to-be-released Deloitte report on his ministry's $38 million funding stuff-up to DHBs in light of the fact that it follows another major botch-up worth $18 million for its head office?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Well I think Parliament has moved past that type of language. We are into positivity now. What I can say is that the Deloitte report is being released this afternoon. The member can access one straight after question time so he should race up to his office. What he will find is there are some very clear recommendations there around the Budget process for 2018 which I know the member will be very eager to read.Dr David Clark: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The question was: "What responsibility does he take for the findings …?".Mr SPEAKER: No no that was not the question. It was far more emotive than that and the answer addressed that.Dr David Clark: What responsibility will he take for the findings?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Look the findings are actually related to the ministry's budget process and Mr Chuah has already taken responsibility for that.Question time interrupted."