Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Mr Chair. It was very interesting for the Health Committee to confirm that Vote Health 2018 had the widest gap between the reality and the rhetoric and we've heard plenty of rhetoric over the last few months about how there was this $8 billion funding shortfall thanks to the previous Government. If that was the case then one would have expected at least some attempt to close the gap between where Labour said funding should have been and where funding was and the most deeply disappointing factor of Budget 2018 is that not only did that not occur but we went backwards. I've heard the Minister of Health say that this is the highest investment in health in 10 years. Well actually it's the highest investment in health in history because health always goes up. But the Minister again was trying to spin a line that somehow for 10 years there had been neglect and here he comes in a white knight to save things. And oh were that the case but actually what the committee heard was that nothing could be further from the truth. Instead of the $3.9 billion appropriation that we had in Budget 2017 this year we got a gross increase of $3.2 billion. But that was before the dividend was taken out by the savings that they claim they were going to make in Pharmac in which case the net investment in health was only $3 billion—and we'll get to that. I'm sure Mr Doocey will get to the issue of mental health and the missing $100 million but the best example of the rhetoric and the reality is in the district health board funding that Louisa Wall just mentioned as being $549 million. She described it as new policies. Actually that's the money that's needed just to keep the lights on. When the previous National Government in Budget 2017 appropriated $439 million for that purpose the Minister in his Opposition role said that it wasn't nearly enough. The minimum required to keep the lights on in 2017 was in his view $650 million. So 12 months later with inflation with fantastic books and with a legacy of a strong economy the opportunity was there for Dr Clark to appropriate $650 million plus interest plus inflation—whatever was required to keep the lights on. What was it? It was $549 million. By the Minister's own measure he failed to reach that by at least $111 million and inflation.And that wasn't the worst of it. To me the worst and most disappointing aspect of Budget 2018 was on GP visits. The Government crows that somewhere in the region of 600000 New Zealanders are going to pay less for their GP visits except it wasn't 600000 that they campaigned on. It was 4.5 million—that every single New Zealander over the age of 13 was going to get a reduction in GP visits. It was unequivocal. The Minister and the Prime Minister went in Opposition in August last year to Māngere to an adoring crowd and said We're all going to get a discount." Only the reality bit—he wasn't able to deliver. And he wasn't able to deliver the $20 million in medicines for the rare disorders fund that he told—Matt Doocey: That's right—the cochlear implants. Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: —the New Zealand Organisation for Rare Disorders he was going to set up for them. Another broken promise. And I hear over my shoulder because I can hear—just—but there are many New Zealanders who can't that cochlear implant funding is affected. Last year the previous Government said "Yep we need to increase cochlear implant surgeries and we're going to do it by 150 percent." But do you know what that was going to cost? It was $6.5 million—1/2800th of the vote—and this miserly Minister takes it away and does not appropriate it. He does not appropriate it.And I think that is a crying shame from a heartless Minister who talked about being compassionate who talked down the great efforts that the previous Government made to improve the health of New Zealanders and then pulled cochlear implant funding. Shame on this Government."