Eight Months of National
AUTHOR: Peter Dunne
Just under eight months ago the current National-led government took office, so it is timely to consider what progress UnitedFuture has been able to make as part of that administration in pushing our key policies.
UnitedFuture’s Confidence and Supply Agreement with the National Party included a commitment to make greater use of private surgical hospital capacity to reduce elective surgery waiting lists in the public sector. The recent announcement that the government is to contract with the private hospital sector to undertake more operations, including cardiac surgery where there are presently long waiting lists in the Auckland area, is a significant first step in that regard. Beyond that, in my role as Associate Health Minister I am currently looking at a range of long term options about how we can achieve better integration between public and private hospitals. Our policy of making private health insurance premia paid by the over 65s tax deductible is also on the table, and I see this as an important step towards the establishment of a comprehensive national health insurance scheme about which I have spoken in detail recently, and will be saying more on in due course.
Another provision of the Confidence and Supply Agreement was to proceed with the full implementation of Medicines New Zealand, the national medicines strategy I developed under the last government to give New Zealanders better access to the medicines they need. The government has already made a significant funding boost for high cost medicines, and I have established a special pharmacy sector task force, in consultation with the Pharmaceutical Society, to look at the way the pharmacy sector needs to be structured in the future to meet the challenges of Medicine New Zealand.
The Confidence and Supply Agreement also made reference to the establishment of a statutory Big Game Hunting Council to promote the interests of the recreational hunting sector. This proposal grew out of the recommendations of the game management panel we had set up under the last government, but the establishment of the statutory body had been a step too far for Labour. The current government has agreed to the idea, and now work is underway to bring it to fruition in the not too distant future.
Another aspect of the Confidence and Supply Agreement was the proposal for legislation to establish a voluntary income splitting scheme for parents with dependent children, which I note has been the subject of favourable editorials in the New Zealand Herald and Otago Daily Times in recent days. Again, this builds on work we undertook with the previous government, in particular the discussion paper I issued as Minister of Revenue setting out how an income splitting scheme could work in New Zealand. I am expecting to introduce legislation to Parliament in the first few months of next year to set up such a scheme. National has pledged its support for the Bill to go to a select committee, and if it receives support beyond that, then income splitting could be in place by 1 April 2011.
One other issue, not part of our Confidence and Supply Agreement, but important to UnitedFuture nonetheless was the extension of the 20 hours free early childhood education scheme to play centres, and in that regard last week’s announcement of such a policy is very welcome news indeed.
After last year’s election there were one or two sceptics who doubted UnitedFuture with just one MP could play any significant role in government. The progress set out above, together with the general work I am doing across my Revenue and Health portfolios, dispels that doubt, and shows that a small party, backed by sound policy and a dedicated, determined and cohesive team can make real progress.