8. Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
When will all the district health board annual plans for 2010-11 be publicly available?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Associate Minister of Health) Link to this
When they are all approved and signed. It will not take until 11 months into the financial year to have the Auckland District Health Board annual plan approved, as I am advised it did in 2006 when the member’s party was in Government. District health boards have worked hard on their plans to improve services while steadily reducing the $150 million gap of unfunded services left by the previous Government.
Mr SPEAKERI must be pretty thick or something, but the question asked when all the district health board annual plans for 2010-11 would be publicly available. The Minister answered that question quite quickly when he said it would be when they were completed and signed. It is totally outside the Standing Orders to then make all sorts of negative comments about the Opposition. I am sure that there will be supplementary questions that will give him more licence, but that primary question did not.
How does he expect candidates for the district health board elections, let alone the public, to make judgments about the extent of his budget cuts when he has still not signed off 15 of the 20 district health board annual plans, which are now 3 months overdue?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
Firstly, there have been no budget cuts; an extra $512 million is going into health—[ Interruption]
This time I apologise to the Minister. The Labour spokesperson on health asked a question to which, I presume, Labour members wish to hear an answer. The Minister in answering initially disputed a claim in the member’s question; he is perfectly at liberty to do that. But the interjection level was such that I could not hear any more of the answer. I want to hear the answer. I apologise to the Minister. I look forward to the House hearing the answer.
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
It is absolutely misleading to say there have been Budget cuts; an extra $512 million is going into health this year. As regards district health board candidates, they are well aware of the legacy of disaster the last Government left them to clean up. In 2007 they managed perfectly well when the Labour Government failed to sign off district health board annual plans, and I am sure they will be well placed to assess the situation this time.
Has the Minister not signed off 15 of the district health board annual plans, which took effect from 1 July, because they all show cuts to services—such as the $300,000 raid on funding ring-fenced for mental health on the West Coast, and the $316,000 cut to non-governmental organisation services in Wairarapa—that he would prefer to remain hidden at least until after the district health board elections?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
That member is once again misleading. In terms of mental health on the West Coast—
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Minister just referred to me with a totally inappropriate and unparliamentary phrase. I took offence and ask that he be required to withdraw and apologise.
The member has raised an interesting point. The member is quite right: normally a member cannot allege that another member is lying or not telling the truth. To suggest that a member might be misleading the House, especially with a statement made in a question, raises an issue as questions are not meant to contain statements and they risk a Minister disputing the statement. Maybe on this occasion, since the member has taken offence, I will ask the Minister to use other language to dispute the claim in the question. The Minister is perfectly at liberty to dispute the claim in the question, but maybe he should not so blatantly claim that another member is misleading the House. He should perhaps dispute the information in more appropriate language.
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
The House will be able to judge whether there have been cuts to mental health budgets on the West Coast, but the facts show that an extra $12.6 million is going into mental health on the West Coast this year. In terms of Wairarapa, another $7.8 million is going into mental health. It will be up to the House to judge whether that initial statement was misleading, but the facts stand for themselves.
Dr Paul HutchisonHon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
The Minister first approved a district annual plan after the general election in November 2008, when there were still four annual plans that the outgoing Labour Government, 4 months into the financial year, had not signed off. These and the remaining district health board 2008-09 annual plans projected a total of around $110 million of services being delivered but not funded. These services were subsequently revealed to total over $150 million.
Why has he signed off on the cut to tobacco control services on the West Coast of $61,000, when the board’s own report says that Māori are under-represented in accessing primary health care services and have above-average smoking rates?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN Link to this
If we look at the West Coast, we see that an extra $4 million is going into health there this year. There has to be a reprioritisation of services to meet the needs of the local communities against the background of increased funding. I remind the member that her Government cut 30,000 New Zealanders off elective surgery waiting lists, so she should not talk to us about cuts.