1. Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this
to the Prime Minister
Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) Link to this
Yes. They are all hard-working and competent Ministers who understand the large challenges faced by this country.
Did he agree with the Minister of Health’s decision to sanitise the report of the independent ministerial review group by removing controversial material from it before he was forced to release it this week and only after the Dominion Post reported some of its contents on the front page?
I think that is a bit of a conspiracy theory. The Minister of Health has set about tidying up the mess left by the previous Government, and of course some of it will be controversial. What does the member expect?
How can he and the Minister of Health claim to have released an independent report on health when the Minister of Health fiddled with the group’s recommendations and removed some of its independent views from the report in an attempt to hide an emerging National agenda of privatisation and broken promises?
I am quite sure that the Minister of Health responsibly discussed with the review group what recommendations it was making, but that member needs to understand the size of the mess she has left. It will take a big effort to turn it round.
Why did the Minister of Health remove from the independent report comments that stated that spending health dollars on improving life expectancy will be an investment in growth only if people work longer before they draw taxpayer-funded superannuation; and what does his Government have to hide when everyone knows that is its view?
I would agree with the Minister that the line of questions is rubbish—making it up, probably. The fact is that to deliver better, smarter health services to New Zealanders means we must change the health system that the previous Government left behind, because the system that Government left chewed up money without much result.
Will the Prime Minister require the Minister of Health to tell doctors and nurses that he edited out of the independent report comments that wage restraint was needed from them, as well as changes to the industrial relations settings, and when will the Government announce its real agenda of wage freezes on their salaries?