﻿Mr SPEAKER: Question No 3, Hon Annette King.
Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour)
to the Minister of Health: Will core Crown health expenditure
in 2016/17 meet all health demographic and inflationary
cost pressures; if not, why not?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (Minister of Health):
The member will be very surprised to hear that she,
like everyone else, will just have to wait until Budget day.
But what I can tell her in advance is that Budget 2016
will feature the highest ever new investment in medicines in a year—
$39 million, bringing Pharmac’s budget to $850 million in total.
Hon Annette King: Will the Ministry of Health be forced in 2016
to make savings to cover cost pressures in the disability support
services budget, given it was required to find $37 million this year
to cover the shortfall in funding?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: The member will just have to wait—21 sleeps to go.
Hon Annette King: Will disabled people living at home with support
bear the brunt of any shortfall in funding in 2016, as they have
this year because the Ministry of Health cut $8.2 million
from services by curtailing demand?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: The member knows the answer to that one—
it is the same as for the first two questions—but what I would say
is that she should stop promising everything to everyone,
because it just does not work. [Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: No, no, no. We will just have the supplementary question.
Hon Annette King: Will Budget 2016 fully fund the recent
sleepover settlement, having underfunded the settlement
by $13 million this financial year; if not, why not?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I will tell you what it will not do.
It will not double the health budget and cut 7,000 people—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] No. [Interruption] Order!
I want the question answered— I want an answer to the question
that was asked. Does the member want to repeat the question
to assist the Minister?
Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
When you were standing on your feet and ruling,
the Minister was saying it was stupid, and I think
he ought to apologise to you.
Mr SPEAKER: I did not hear that. If the member wants to ask
the question again, we can move on.
Hon Annette King: Will Budget 2016 fully fund the sleepover settlement,
having underfunded the settlement by $13 million this financial year;
if not, why not?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: As I say, 21 sleeps to go.
Hon Annette King: How much is he planning to put aside
for deficit support for district health boards in Budget 2016,
in light of his announcement yesterday that the deficits
are “about $60 million”, up by $14 million in just 2 months
and nowhere near—
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Bring the question to a conclusion.
Hon Annette King: —the $19 million he planned for the whole year?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: What I can say is we will not need
the $160 million of deficit support that Mrs King would have needed
to fund her ever-expanding deficits as health Minister.
We have got them down to about $60 million,
and they are getting lower all the time.
Hon Annette King: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
The Minister, on several occasions, has made claims
about when I was the Minister of Health. In fact, the dates
that he uses for when I was the Minister of Health, I was not.
I think it is important that he remembers it is 11 years
since I was the Minister and I stopped being the Minister in 2005.
Mr SPEAKER: If the member feels she is being misrepresented
can I refer her to Standing Order 359.
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.
You cannot allow the member to use a point of order
to make a debating point. It is just not on. [Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] No. I need no need further assistance.
I certainly need no further assistance on this.
The member in quite a long way suggested misrepresentation.
She is entitled to do that. I have suggested the remedy she must then take.
Hon Annette King: When will he stop the smoke-and-mirrors routine
with the health budget, especially for the people of Canterbury,
where he was forced to put in $6.6 million
for mental health services recently, while at the same time
demanding the district health board make $15 million in cuts?
Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I do not accept that at all.
There is $254 million of extra funding that has gone into that DHB
over the last 7 years. We have put in an extra $86 million to support
the DHB through the earthquakes, including, actually on top of that,
another $20 million just recently for mental health.
So I am afraid you are on the wrong track.
Mr SPEAKER: Question No 4.
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