Seymour offers to sub for cynical Chris Hipkins Health debate

“Chris Hipkins’ offer to debate Chris Luxon on health shows he has a lot more self-confidence than ministerial competence. I’ll take him up on the offer,” says ACT leader David Seymour.

“Before people vote, it’s worth remembering what is at stake. In health, let’s remember what a walking disaster Hipkins was, both as COVID-19 response Minister and Minister of Health, and then as Prime Minister.

“Chris Hipkins is measurably the worst health Minister in modern New Zealand history, capable of vaporising billions of taxpayer dollars while healthcare performance got worse.

“Every one of the Government’s health targets – emergency department stays, cancer treatment times, elective surgery wait times, child immunisation, and first specialist appointments – has improved under the Coalition.

“Let’s start with his performance as COVID-19 response Minister. Hipkins never explained how we got from 'the front of the queue' to the bottom of the OECD for vaccination rates.

“When the vaccine got here, he overlooked advice that it could be fatal to teenaged boys. He was also part of a mandate regime that ultimately resulted in fires on the lawn of Parliament.

“Hipkins needs to explain how the healthcare budget increased 40 per cent in two years for COVID, but somehow he ended up with less of what was needed – ICU beds – so the country could reopen.

“So much for Hipkins’ disastrous COVID management. He needs to explain why the last Labour Government then decided to spend half a billion dollars restructuring the healthcare system in the middle of a pandemic. The system is still digesting that disruption.

“Then there is the $1.774 billion fiscal cliff Hipkins’ Government left for medicines funding. Our Government faced a choice of finding the amount or cancelling people’s medications.

“We could talk about the race-obsession that consumed healthcare during Hipkins’ time. A separate Māori health authority and endless focus on who patients’ ancestors were instead of what they needed.

“Under Hipkins, there was a decline in primary care. The underfunding of GPs saw fewer doctors choosing general practice and existing GPs working fewer hours per week as they looked overseas and to retirement.

“The slow death of community pharmacy that happened on Hipkins' watch is putting more pressure on GP clinics that carries through to war zone emergency departments. This neglect of primary care is why ACT is campaigning for:

•⁠ ⁠Pharmacy first, funding pharmacies to treat minor ailments as the health provider closest to you
•⁠ ⁠A GP funding uplift of $100 million a year, so GP clinics can retain their people
•⁠ ⁠Closing the medicines gap with Australia so more conditions can be treated with medication.

“More important than what Hipkins' healthcare failure says about his competence, though, is what his debate challenge says about his character. He challenged Chris Luxon because of some tragic circumstances reported in the news. There’s a reason I call him cynical Chris Hipkins.

“If Hipkins won’t accept this challenge on health, I’m happy to debate him on his disastrous record as education minister, when less than 40 per cent of children regularly attended school. Perhaps we could debate at a charter school, and he could explain to the children why he knows best?"