Budget Speech

The Green Party supports the general direction of this budget, which will help create a fairer and more sustainable society in New Zealand.

We support the health initiatives in this budget, in particular the $74 million extra funding a year for extra elective surgery and the $270 million extra funding for mental health over the next four years.

We are disappointed that the overall health budget remains firmly focused on illness treatment - rather than on health prevention, and on trying to reduce the causes of ill-health.

But we are pleased that $5 million extra per year is being allocated over the next 4 years for Maori smoking cessation initiatives.

We are delighted too, that the Greens have been able to secure $4 million in the budget to fund quit smoking programmes for low income New Zealanders.

When we supported the increased tax on cigarettes, we did so on condition that the additional funding would be allocated to help low-income New Zealanders give up smoking. We said then that it did not make sense to hit people with the stick of tax increases on cigarettes unless there was also a carrot - an incentive system in place to help people give up smoking. The opposition laughed when we said we would ensure money was allocated to help low-income New Zealanders quit smoking. But we have delivered on our promise.

I have already had phone calls from around New Zealand from people wanting to sign up for free nicotine therapy so the indications are there that this investment will make a substantial difference.

I believe the $4 million from the Green budget package for free nicotine replacement treatment for low-income New Zealanders, together with the $20 million Maori quit smoking package - are the single most important health preventions measure in this budget and it will probably do more to reduce the causes of illness and to improve health in New Zealand than any other single measure in this budget.

Another measure that will help to reduce the causes of ill health is the $235,000 allocation in the Green budget to begin work on developing a comprehensive pesticide reduction strategy for New Zealand.

The World Health Organisation reports a wide variety of known adverse health effects from exposure to pesticides, including cancer, immune system damage, reproductive effects such as miscarriage and birth deformities, blood and respiratory disorders, liver damage. An increasing body of scientific evidence suggests that a number of these health effects, such as endocrine disruption, reproductive problems, cancer and immune dysfunction may occur as a result of even very low levels of exposure to pesticides.

As well as threatening our health, pesticides threaten the stability of our ecosystems by destroying insects and soil organisms that are harmless or even beneficial, and damaging the ecology of the soil.

Many countries overseas have comprehensive pesticide reduction strategies in place to reduce the amount of pesticides that are used in agriculture. Sweden reduced the amount of pesticide it used by 86% in just 6 years. It is time New Zealand developed a comprehensive strategy to significantly reduce the amount of pesticides we use --more than 3000 tonnes each year-- and assist farmers to convert to more sustainable agricultural techniques.

Finally I want to thank the Minister of Health, Annette King, for agreeing to a Green party proposal to allocate $150,000 to fund a Ministerial Advisory Committee on complementary healthcare.

We see the establishment of this committee as the first, modest step towards recognising properly registered complementary therapists and integrating them over time into the health system.

Consumer demand for complementary healthcare is growing rapidly with more than a quarter of the population using complementary therapies. We need to ensure that consumers using complementary therapies are properly protected and that there is ongoing research into the safety and efficacy of complementary healthcare.

Complementary healthcare is low tech and cost effective. In the long term recognition and integration of complementary healthcare will help improve the health of New Zealanders and reduce our dependence on prescription drugs, including antibiotics, and shift our emphasis towards preventing rather than just treating illness.