Minister admits he misled NZ public

The Health Minister today admitted he has been misleading the New Zealand public on health spending to hide his broken promises and to mask the fact that he did not deliver to the expectations he raised, National’s Health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.

“The Minister of Health David Clark confirmed to the health select committee today that the $8 billion campaign pledge was both equivocal and grossly misleading.

“The Government are using figures to make the previous Government’s record look as bad as possible when they didn’t deliver any more funding than National would have.

“They need to front up to the New Zealand public and explain why they set an expectation that there would be $8 billion more than the previous Government would have put into Vote Health.

“One of the consequences of the failure to meet the lofty expectations that the Minister has set is the deep disappointment among health professionals and the notice of strike action by nurses today.

“Even the Deputy Prime Minister admitted this to media when he conceded ‘perhaps the expectations that we’ve given them are too high.’

“The health sector lacks leadership by the Minister, and the examples the select committee heard of his appalling management of the Middlemore Hospital issues and his poor treatment of board members are a good indication that he is out of his depth.”

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