Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
ORAL QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS TO MINISTERS
Question No. 1—Acting Prime Minister
1. CHRISTOPHER LUXON (Leader of the Opposition) to the Acting Prime Minister: Does he stand by all of his Government’s statements and actions?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON (Acting Prime Minister): Tāloha ni, Mr Speaker. I thank the member for the opportunity to mark five years of the Government securing better outcomes for New Zealanders. In that time, we have added 10,000 more public homes, accompanied by record high building consents and putting an end to overseas speculators rorting the property market. We’re better supporting primary mental health care services with 2.3 million people now covered through primary care providers. We’ve increased the number of nurses by nearly 20 percent; the number of doctors by over 20 percent. Mr Luxon, we’ve lifted 66,000 children out of poverty and served more than 63 million school lunches. We’ve employed 5,200 people through Mana in Mahi; 215,000 people have taken up free apprenticeships and trade training. We’ve kept New Zealanders safe over COVID while delivering low unemployment and an economy that is larger than pre-pandemic. We’ve also cushioned the effects of the global cost of living pressures by lowering petrol excise duty, introducing half-price public transport and the support we’ve given to low and middle income New Zealanders. All of that shows why it’s important to have a Government who has a well thought-through and costed plan, because the alternative of an uncosted, untested, and frankly dangerous set of proposals coming from the Opposition, like UK-style tax cuts for the wealthiest New Zealanders, would take New Zealand backwards.
Christopher Luxon: Why did the Government scrap the target for shorter wait times in emergency departments?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The previous Government’s record on targets was appalling, because what they did was set targets across government that actually didn’t take New Zealanders forward. In the health system, I am extremely proud of a Government that has increased health funding by 43.5 percent since 2017, has increased Pharmac’s funding by 43 percent in that time, and has extended free and low-cost doctors visits to those under 14. We’ve also covered 2.5 million people through mental health sessions. We’ve continued to lift those in the workforce. We’ve continued to support all of those at the front line. But here’s the rub. The health system would have been under even more pressure if we’d followed the National Party’s advice and opened the borders up. That’s when the health system would really have felt the pressure.
Christopher Luxon: Can he confirm that nearly one in four patients are now waiting longer than six hours to be seen at an emergency department (ED), up from just one in 10 when Labour took office?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The last winter in New Zealand has been one of the toughest for our health system. The National Party might want to believe that COVID never happened. The National Party might want to believe that we didn’t have our first flu season for two years. But the truth is the health system withstood a one-in-100-year pandemic, and I’m actually proud of our health professionals. I don’t want to run them down like that member.
Christopher Luxon: Is he aware that in the six years before his Government took office, the proportion of ED patients seen within six hours was never less than 91 percent—a figure Labour hasn’t achieved throughout the seasons now for four straight years?
ANGELA ROBERTS: What I am aware of is a health system that we inherited that was in a complete mess, with underfunding of mental health, underfunding of public health, and underfunding of primary care. That is actually what we inherited. We know that there is always more to do in our health system, but this Government can stand proudly on a record of funding that his party can’t.
Christopher Luxon: Does he really think that, after five years in Government, Kiwis being denied healthcare because of dangerously short-staffed emergency departments are going to buy his desperate attempt to blame previous Governments for failures that are happening on his watch?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: What I know New Zealanders see when they go into the hospitals of New Zealand is a health workforce that works incredibly hard on their behalf. They see a health workforce that has increased, in terms of doctors and nurses, by 20 percent since we’ve been in office. They see a health workforce where we’re actually funding the building of health infrastructure instead of the National Party who had zero dollars for two consecutive years for health infrastructure. We know it takes long-term, sustained investment to build a health system, and that is what we’re doing.
Christopher Luxon: What is his response to the letter from senior staff at the previous Bay of Plenty DHB that stated that people with bowel cancer are waiting so long for treatment it is too late to cure them?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Anybody who has to wait a significant amount of time for bowel cancer treatment is something that all of us should want to improve. I note that the letter covers concerns described as being 15 years of failing to plan for the health system. We have invested significantly in the area of bowel screening, with over $200 million over the last four Budgets for bowel screening. I can note for the member that when that letter was written in December 2021, 88 percent of patients in the Bay of Plenty DHB were receiving treatment for bowel cancer within a target of 31 days. By August 2022, 96 percent of patients are now receiving. We’re getting on top of the problems that member ignored.
Christopher Luxon: What does he say to the families of people who have lost loved ones after they were denied access to lifesaving treatment due to the blow-out in wait-lists under this Government’s watch?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I’ve already said in answer to a previous supplementary question, this has been one of the most difficult winters New Zealand’s health system has ever had to face: illness amongst staff, the COVID pandemic, flu breaking out all over New Zealand. What we’ve done is make sure that we’ve continued to invest. We keep working with all of the health authorities around New Zealand, not washing our hands, not underfunding like his Government did.
Christopher Luxon: Is he embarrassed that nurses in New Zealand are now reporting that they’re fearful of working in our overloaded emergency departments?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Again, I repeat what I said. We appreciate the work that our dedicated health professionals do. I’ll tell you what we’re doing about it, Mr Luxon—we’re paying them properly. We’ve lifted the pay by 20 percent, whereas under that party, it flat-lined. We’re making sure there’s more doctors and more nurses in our hospitals: 20 percent more doctors, 20 percent more nurses.
Christopher Luxon: What possible reason could the Government have for still refusing to offer overseas nurses immediate residency to come to New Zealand?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: The Government’s residency offer for nurses compares well to countries overseas. We’ve seen around 400 overseas nurses become registered in New Zealand since July. We have about 500 nurses’ visa applications. We’re working hard to make sure that the workforce we need is there.
David Seymour: Can the Acting Prime Minister imagine anything his Government could do to make it easier for nurses to immigrate to New Zealand, and if he can imagine such a thing, when will he do it?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: As I said in answer to the previous question, the Government has got competitive offer when it comes to nurses coming to work in New Zealand compared to the rest of the world. We have a large number of visa applications, and we’re processing them as quickly as we can.
David Seymour: Does the Acting Prime Minister believe New Zealand is a First World country when at least two people have died after being turned away from hospitals in the middle of our two largest cities this winter?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I am proud of the way that New Zealand and New Zealanders found their way through a COVID pandemic that killed tens of thousands of people in every other country—or other large countries—around the world. What we did is protect New Zealanders’ lives and livelihoods. In our health system, we have dedicated professionals who work hard. The member might have all the detail and all the information on those cases; I suggest he carefully works his way through and lets the investigations into them complete.
David Seymour: Does the Minister accept that there’s a serious shortage of staff in our hospitals, with frequent reports such as this from Auckland doctor, “Four nurses from our department have resigned in the last two weeks, one interventional room now closed as it can’t be staffed. It just goes on.”, and if he does accept that there is a serious shortage of staff in our hospitals, can he tell the House and the people of New Zealand why?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: Our health system has been under enormous pressure this winter because of COVID, because of staffing shortages, some of which are a result of COVID, some of which are a result of the fact that, yes, our borders were shut. We covered in the House yesterday why that was an important thing for us to do. I repeat: there has been a 20 percent increase in the number of nurses in our hospitals under this Government’s watch. If we accepted the economic policies of the Opposition, including that member, there would not be enough money to pay for those nurses. There would not be enough money to employ those nurses. We know that’s true because it’s what happened the last time they were in Government.
David Seymour: Is this Government’s handling of COVID-19 a triumphant achievement or its excuse for everything that goes wrong?
Hon GRANT ROBERTSON: I am proud of the way all New Zealanders, not just the Government, responded to COVID. The results are all around us: we saved lives, we saved livelihoods in New Zealand. I don’t know why the member insists on talking New Zealand down.
