Ryall Tony: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
Ryall Tony: Appropriation (2009/10 Estimates) Bill — Third Reading Imprest Supply Debate 
[Volume:656;Page:5922] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of Health) 
: 
 It was very interesting to hear the member opposite Clayton Cosgrove talk about policies for middle-class people who have lost their jobs. The one policy we have heard from the Labour Party this year is that millionaires who lose their jobs should get welfare entitlement. That is what we heard from the members opposite and that is what Phil Goff said. It is the one policy idea we have heard from the Labour Party this year. The other idea is that we can borrow our way out of this recession; whatever we want we can just borrow. That is what the Labour Party says. It is completely unaware that eventually everything needs to be paid off and Labour has no record whatsoever for dealing with that. 
I am pleased to be following the Hon Judith Collins the Minister of Police and the Minister of Corrections in this debate. She is a Minister of Police who will deliver an extra 600 front-line police officers for New Zealand—many of them into South Auckland where they are desperately needed. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I seek leave to table the transcript of the Law and Order Committee estimates hearing where the Minister admits that what the member said is not the case. It will not be 600. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Leave has been sought to table that document. Is there any objection? There is objection. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: You don’t like the truth do you? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Actually it is Labour members who do not like the truth. They do not like the fact that violent crime in this country increased dramatically under the previous Labour Government. They do not like the fact that our police force became completely disenchanted and disconnected because of the leadership of that failed party opposite. They do not like the fact that this Government is serious about dealing with violent crime and keeping criminals behind bars where they belong so that we can keep our streets and communities safe. 
I want to talk about the dreadful problems that we inherited in the New Zealand public health system. We inherited a public health system tracking towards financial crisis. We found that district health boards were delivering about $160 million of unfunded services. That is a deficit and we are expecting it to go up to over $200 million next year. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: So you’re going to cut that? 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Mr—what is his name—Hughes who used to be the MP for Otaki and was defeated asks “What about the cuts?”. I will tell him about the cuts. He was a whip in a Government that weeks before the 2008 election cut $150 million out of the health budget and never put out a press statement. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: Not true! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That is what previous Government members did. If we look at the estimates we see that they cut $50 million out of health for this year and another $50 million out of the next year. Altogether $150 million was cut out of the public health budget. We also inherited $600 million of capital infrastructure claims for beds and wards but next to no money to pay for them. It is just dreadful. 
The worst part of the health system we inherited was the workforce crisis. We simply did not have enough doctors and nurses engaged in the running of our public health service. [ 
Interruption 
] The previous Government did about 55 reports over 9 years. It never actually dealt with the problem but it decided to set up another committee. That committee had endless reports those reports spurred further reports that needed to be dealt with and we ended up having 55 health reports. This Government took decisive action to encourage our young doctors nurses and midwives to stay in New Zealand. We introduced a voluntary bonding scheme that says to our young midwives nurses and doctors that if they stay in the country for 3 to 5 years after they graduate we will write off their student loans or give them a cash incentive sufficient that after 5 years working in New Zealand in a hard-to-staff area or in a specialty their loans will be paid off. That scheme has had a huge response. We originally thought we would get about 100 doctors and 250 nurses and midwives wanting to enter the scheme. We ended up getting 950 young New Zealanders wanting to be in the voluntary bonding scheme. I went to the Prime Minister and I said “Prime Minister we have money for 350; I have 950.” The Prime Minister John Key said “We’ll take every single one of those people who want to be in the voluntary bonding scheme.” and we had to find resources in the health sector to pay for that. We are bringing in policies to keep those young people in New Zealand. 
This Budget deserves the support of New Zealanders because half of all new spending pledged in it goes to health. Health got half the new money and the other 30 departments and Ministers got the other half. That demonstrates the strong commitment and leadership that John Key and Bill English have towards the New Zealand public health service. We have $750 million of new health initiatives being funded in this Budget. That shows that this Government is committed to dealing with the crisis in health that we inherited. 
What have we spent some of that money on? Do members know that there are no more general practitioners working in the country today than there were 9 years ago? Despite doubling the health budget and putting a huge amount of money into tertiary education there are no more general practitioners today than there were 9 years ago. 
Hon Dr Wayne Mapp 
: That’s a mark of Labour failure. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: That is a real failure by the previous Labour Government. So what are we doing? There are 60 new medical training places in 2009-10 which is the first tranche of the additional 200 new places annually that we will be producing. There will be 25 extra places this year for general practitioner training increasing to 52 extra places next year. We have set aside $70 million over the next 4 years to train the additional health professionals we need to help support New Zealand’s move to dedicated elective surgery capacity in the next few years. We have also put more money into training for health professionals in rural areas. 
The Government has put a huge amount of money into district health boards—$2.1 billion over the next 4 years $536 million this year. We get little Opposition spokespeople jumping up and saying we have cut $500000 here and $300000 there. That is what Labour members tell me I have done but in fact the Government has put $536 million extra into district health boards this year. It is the single biggest input into district health board funding that there has ever been. We are working diligently with the health sector to improve services for New Zealanders. 
We have put in an extra $40 million to increase the length of stay in hospital for New Zealand mums. New Zealand mums made it very clear that they were sick and tired of having problems thrown at them such as when Wellington Hospital was planning to give $100 Pak ’N Save vouchers to young mums if they got out of the hospital within 6 hours. That is what was planned under Labour. Did the Minister stop it? No; it was going to happen. Did the National Opposition stop it by blowing the whistle? Yes. The hospital was going to give young mums $100—[ 
Interruption 
] It might interest Mr Hughes eventually. Does Mr Hughes support that plan? Yes his head is nodding. We do not support that on this side of the House. We want to have longer stays in birthing facilities. We want improved support services for parents. We are funding 24-hour PlunketLine. Why would Helen Clark not fund 24-hour PlunketLine when she promised she would in 1999? National is funding it. 
We are doing a lot more. Why is the Labour Party opposed to an extra $15 million this year for hospices? Why is Labour opposed to me contributing $100 million to the home insulation fund? When the Government announced that health was contributing $100 million to the home insulation fund Ruth Dyson said it was a cut to the health budget. One move that will make a huge difference to respiratory disease in New Zealand and keep kids out of hospital was opposed by that party opposite.