Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
Question No. 4—Health
4. Dr SHANE RETI (National) to the Minister of Health: Does he stand by his statements and actions around the July 2020 measles catch-up campaign that was paused 8 months later in March 2021?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): Yes, in the context in which they were made.
Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm that the measles catch-up campaign cost more than $20 million but only managed to vaccinate 3 percent of the target group, representing a cost of $1,900 per person?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE: No. The member is applying fictitious maths, which is, of course, the stock in trade for the National Party these days. The reality is that the campaign has not concluded and the campaign will continue. It is planned to continue until at least the end of June this year and possibly will be extended.
Dr Shane Reti: Can he also confirm that nearly $2 million was spent on a public relations agency to target Māori and Pacific people, yet only 1,181 Māori were ever vaccinated, representing a PR cost of $1,500 per person?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE: No. The member’s figures are completely wrong, which is, again, his track record, because he repeatedly now has to withdraw figures he puts in the public arena. The reality is there was a communications campaign associated with the catch-up MMR campaign. The House needs to recall, of course, that in 2014 the Government of the day received advice that there was a gap in vaccination coverage for this area. They received advice again in 2017. On both occasions that Government did absolutely nothing about it. This Government embarked on a campaign. It was planned in 2020, well before the advent of COVID, but COVID interrupted at the end of 2020 or beginning of 2021, depending on how you look at it, and like so many things, it disrupted the planned health programme at that point.
Dr Shane Reti: Can he confirm that more was spent on PR than was spent funding the entire Māori delivery component of the campaign, and doesn’t this show he actually cared more about PR spin than vaccinating Māori for measles?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE: No, and, again, that member is wrong, because he acts as if the campaign is over. The campaign has not finished. The reality is this Government has had to make decisions in the real world, in real time, and things come along and disrupt that. This Government makes hard choices and hard decisions, unlike members on that side of the House, who have just become a pack of nit-picking niggly nattering nabobs of negativity.
Dr Shane Reti: Isn’t a $20 million measles catch-up campaign that lets $8 million of the vaccines expire, spends nearly $2 million on PR, and only reaches 3 percent of the target audience another example of why people shouldn’t believe any health announcements that he makes?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE: No. I think what New Zealanders should feel an absolute sense of disgrace about is that the members opposite, when they were in Government, twice were notified that there was a gap in vaccination and did absolutely nothing about it. This Government did the responsible thing to put in place a programme to catch up on this very important vaccination.
DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before I allow the supplementary, that was a barrage of interjections, OK? We need to—
Matt Doocey: Yeah, well, it’s his fault. He started it.
DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry, Mr Doocey, no. We need to dial it back, OK?
Dr Shane Reti: Does he agree that the $8 million he wasted on expired measles vaccines or the nearly $2 million spent on PR would have been better spent helping to clear the backlog of 50,000 women currently waiting for cancer screening mammograms?
Hon ANDREW LITTLE: Well, I remind that member that the backlog he talks about today is a consequence of the COVID pandemic that started in February 2021, which was not known about in the earlier part of 2020, when the MMR vaccination catch-up campaign was arranged. That catch-up campaign would not have been necessary if the previous Government had listened to the advice that they got in 2014 and in 2017. But once again we have the party on the Opposition benches who is the party of anti – quality public health services, compared to this Government, which invests in quality public health services.
