Salesa JennyJENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Vote Health needed an additional $635 million just to keep up with demographics and inflation. It did not get that in this Budget. Primary care was increased by only $6 million; it needed up to $26 million. The increase to Pharmac is less than half of the $103 million it needed just to maintain 2009-10 expenditure levels. This means that Kiwis will continue to miss out on effective lifesaving drugs that are funded in Australia and other countries.The National Government has effectively cut around $1.7 billion out of the health budget over the last few years. It has not even had enough funds to meet enough of the health services and the cost pressures let alone backfill the cuts that the Government has made. There is only so much that district health boards (DHBs) can do and only so many cuts that our health providers can take. There is nothing more to cut. There are only core health services now to be cut and we would prefer that this current Government does not do that. In 2016-17 DHBs will be expected to make even more cuts in terms of efficiencies as they absorb record amounts of wage demographic inflation and cost pressures. As the Minister of Heath himself Mr Coleman said last month this Government refuses to fund district health boards to meet demand for health services.A Labour Government and a Labour Budget would invest in health. We are committed to meeting population and inflation cost pressures and reversing the National Government's spending cuts. I listened very carefully to the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga's contribution. One of the things he challenged this side of the House to do was to name one bright idea. I would like to say that one of the things that we as a health system should be worried about is the fact that non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are something that we should have initiatives to address.New Zealand as a country has the third-highest obesity rate in the world—second to Mexico and the United States. This is not something that we should be proud of. As a Tongan and as a Pacific Islander I am most definitely not proud of the fact that Pacific countries have the highest rate of NCDs in the world. As a Tongan I am also not proud of the fact that Tongans as a people are the most obese in the world.Tonga and the Pacific aside New Zealand also has a big issue with obesity. The University of Auckland way back in 2012 did a study and told us that its estimate is that currently it costs New Zealand between $722 million and $849 million a year in health-care costs and lost productivity. In terms of the challenge that the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga threw at this side of the House—to come up with one bright idea—I would say that one of the things that we as a Labour Government are really good at is looking forward. We usually are a Government that has a long-term view. We have a strategic approach to health to education and to housing as well as to social security.Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman: You should try it with politics as well.JENNY SALESA: Just back to health honourable Minister. When we were in Government we realised that obesity was going to be a big issue long term.David Bennett: What did you do about it?JENNY SALESA: We put aside various initiatives to address obesity. We had various initiatives Mr David Bennett. We had various initiatives to tackle obesity. We had the Healthy Eating - Healthy Action programme we had Fruit in Schools we had health promotion in schools and we had community actions. We had various things in terms of tuck shops in schools where we would not allow various foods and sugary drinks to be sold in schools. David Bennett: Bring back the pies.JENNY SALESA: Look back 8 years David Bennett. How has the obesity level in New Zealand fared? How have child obesity levels in New Zealand fared? They have increased.David Bennett: How much?JENNY SALESA: They have increased Mr Bennett under the watch of your current Government the National Government which came through and cut all of those things that we put in place because we could see into the future. We could see that obesity is something that will overtake the current costs. It will actually overtake tobacco.