Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
2 DECEMBER 2015

National Guilty of Double Speak in Voting Against Healthcare Bill

National Party MPs are guilty of double speak for voting against New Zealand First’s Affordable Healthcare Bill which contains measures that National has actively endorsed.

“They have blatantly ignored common sense policies purely because they came from New Zealand First – putting politics before the health and wellbeing of New Zealanders,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Their duplicity is threefold.

“First, compulsory health insurance for migrants is already in New Zealand immigration law as a requirement for several categories of visa, including migrant work visas, investor migrants, and retirement category migrants. The Bill would have added the parent reunion category. The claim that this breached the Bill of Rights is contradicted by the visa categories that already exist.

“Second, Prime Minister John Key has publicly and repeatedly endorsed the removal of fringe benefit tax from workplace health insurance, one of the Bill’s main objectives, but National has voted against it.

“Third, the Bill’s 25 per cent health insurance rebate for SuperGold Card holders was dismissed by National even though a similar policy offering a 30 per cent rebate was part of National Party policy in 2008.

“An opportunity to alleviate pressure on the public health system and bring fairness to Kiwis who have contributed to the economy has been lost because National cannot be trusted to keep its word,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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