Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
Coleman Jonathan: General Debate 
[Volume:638;Page:8417] 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 It is unbelievable that that speech actually came from Associate Minister of Health Mita Ririnui. It was some sort of incoherent mumble on a range of topics. I heard the word Maori a few times; I did not hear much about health. But that speech was typical of this Government and of where it is at the moment. Government members want to talk about anything but the issues of the day. 
Hon Mita Ririnui 
: And what are the issues? 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: I will tell the member what the issues are—and the Government is getting on the wrong side of every single one of them. That is this Government’s big problem. 
We had several hundred people outside the front of Parliament Buildings today protesting against the arrogance of this Government which is going to go against what 83 percent of New Zealanders want—83 percent of the electorate. This Government arrogantly thinks it can walk into people’s homes and tell them how to raise their families. The Government is on the wrong side of that issue. It is on the wrong side of the issue in respect of corrections where the mismanagement has been just appalling. It is also on the wrong side of the issue with regard to 20 free hours’ early childhood education—it has made a big mistake with that one; it has gone down a blind hole and it cannot now back itself out of it. 
The Government is definitely on the wrong side of every argument regarding the health sector in New Zealand at the moment. On 1 July 1.5 million Aucklanders will face not having a community laboratory service—and that is the Government’s fault. The Minister of Health is accountable for that. He has told us that the district health boards are to blame and he is in charge of those district health boards. What was really disappointing about Associate Minister of Health Mita Ririnui’s speech was that he had nothing to say about the problems in Auckland at the moment—nothing at all. The Government is silent on that issue. The Minister of Health and his bozo mate Trevor Mallard—who interjects right the way through—gave a lot of criticism and a lot of flannel but they had not one thing to say about how they will solve this debacle. It is an absolute disgrace. Tony Ryall was right when he said accountability is on the way back and it will come back in with a National Government. This lot has no interest in taking accountability for anything. The Government’s defence on the lab issue is to constantly muddy the waters. It says the issue is everybody else’s fault: it is poor old nice Dr Hutchison’s fault it is Dr Blue’s fault and it is everyone’s fault but that of the hopeless Minister of Health and the Prime Minister who are actually losing control of the situation. They will put anything they can out there to muddy the waters in order to take the public’s eyes of the ball. 
But Government members know they are on to a loser with regard to this issue. They know it because the fact is that the conflicts of interest in this case were clearly clearly stated long ago. Paul Hutchison wrote to the Minister of Health telling him there was a conflict. What did the Minister do? Absolutely nothing. Wayne Brown the Auckland District Health Board chair knew of the inside information that Tony Bierre had. What did he do? Absolutely nothing—it says that in the court judgment which says the problem was not so much what Dr Bierre knew but what the district health boards did not do. Frankly there was abject negligence. The worst part about it is that the Minister of Health never took any steps to find out whether the conflict of interest issue had been resolved—he did not do anything. He knew about it; he had been warned about it. He had been told about it by Dr Hutchison and by many people who had written to him but he did absolutely nothing. 
I agree with the  
New Zealand Herald 
 editorial that people need to take responsibility for this matter. The people who need to take responsibility for it are the chairs of the district health boards—and they are the appointed flunkies of this Government. Who is in charge of those chairs? It is Pete Hodgson. He had nothing to say today about how he will fix this mess—absolutely nothing at all. He said in Parliament that it is the district health boards’ responsibility to fix it but he and the Prime Minister both refuse to express confidence in them. I ask members this if the Minister of Health and the Prime Minister cannot express confidence in the district health board chairs now how on earth do they think those chairs will be able to fix this mess? If they are not confident in those chairs now the chairs should go. 
The Minister of Health needs to get up and say that he will be able to deliver lab services to 1.5 million Aucklanders on 1 July because he has promised that all along. If the Labour Government cannot deliver on that promise it is really time for that Minister to resign. What does it take for a Labour Government Minister to resign? Well I can tell members that Labour Ministers seem to think they are pretty bulletproof.