Tony Ryall MP
National Party Health Spokesman

5 November 2007

Cullen says ‘me-too’ on health

National Party Health spokesman Tony Ryall says Michael Cullen’s announcements on future health spending directly contradict his position before the 2005 election.

Ahead of the weekend tax cut promises, the Finance Minister said of health spending: ‘ We are, at least under this government, simply talking about better controlling the rate of spending growth and ensuring value for money for what we do spend.’

Mr Ryall says that was National’s approach ahead of the 2005 election. It was an approach that Dr Cullen claimed amounted to a cut.

“It’s another ‘me-too’ policy, which Labour’s trying to slide in under the radar.”

In July 2005 the Finance Minister was reported as saying that ‘under the guise of promising to increase health and education spending, National was in fact promising cuts’.‘To reduce them would compromise health-care services and the quality of education available in our schools’, Dr Cullen was quoted as saying.

The then Health Minister, Annette King, predicted the sky would fall in, saying this sort of policy would put at risk ‘funding for the long-awaited nurses' pay settlement, the final roll-out over the next two years of affordable primary health-care, additional funding for the mental health sector, doubling the number of joint replacements, funding for cancer control and capital development for new hospitals, just to name a few things’.

Mr Ryall says Dr Cullen should outline which health services he believes are wasting money.

“Dr Cullen has now adopted a policy which he condemned and which his colleagues attacked.

“Labour has always argued that every dollar it has devoted to healthcare has been spent wisely. Dr Cullen now admits this is not true.”

Mr Ryall says New Zealanders are being asked to believe that Labour can slow the growth of spending and improve health services when they’re responsible for introducing more bureaucracy and allowing productivity in the sector to collapse.

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