News Worthy - 13 June 2008 - No. 250
13 June 2008 - No. 250
Secure healthcare
Something is clearly wrong when the Government has doubled expenditure on health but hospitals are spiralling into
deficit even through the Government promised not to let that happen.
Buried in the fine print of last month's Budget is the revelation that nine of the country's DHBs are expecting to run
up huge deficits in the next financial year: Auckland, Counties Manukau, Tairawhiti, Hawke's Bay, Whanganui, Capital and
Coast, West Coast, Otago, and Southland.
Apparently there is a $24 million deficit at Wellington's Capital and Coast DHB - more than double what was expected.
Last week, Hutt Valley DHB admitted to a possible $6 million to $9 million deficit after planning to break even.
Southland's deficit has jumped to more than $6 million. MidCentral's deficit is expected to be over $7 million - four
times the original estimate.
The response of Finance Minister Michael Cullen is that "cost containment strategies" are being put in place. It is not
clear what that means in the context of sick or injured people.
Ironically, Helen Clark campaigned in Opposition on a promise that 'the deficit funding of the public health sector has
to stop. We should fund a balanced budget for our public health services - not a deficit budget'.
The New Zealand political economy
This month, Kerry McDonald, a well-known professional company director who was previously the director of the New
Zealand Institute of Economic Research and then Managing Director of Colmaco, gave his insights in a published paper
which was sub-titled "Ineffective policies, lost opportunities; miserable results and serious risks".
It is a devastating indictment of the Labour-led Government and looks at a range of key performance indicators and key
issues.
His comments include that an NZIER analysis of the Government's recent report Economic Development Indicators 2007
concludes: the 24 underlying determinants of New Zealand's living standards are "heavily clustered" in the "low" and
"deteriorating" performance ratings. Twelve were rated low, 10 medium, and 2 high. In addition, 13 were deteriorating, 2
steady, and 9 improving.
Productivity is "low and deteriorating", and its growth has been at or below benchmark countries since 1980. New Zealand
was also "low and deteriorating" in savings, international trade, outward foreign direct investment, management skills,
exchange rate, balance of payments, and net foreign assets. The tax system was "deteriorating" as the rest of the world
has been steadily reducing tax rates and New Zealand's share of total taxes from personal and corporate income is high!
That is a woeful picture.
A referendum on MMP
When MMP was introduced we all believed there would be a further referendum. Not so. The plan was only to conduct a
review that was conducted by a parliamentary committee dominated by minor party representatives.
The result, of course, was a foregone conclusion. The cynic would say that "turkeys don't vote for an early Christmas".
These ones proved the strength of that aphorism.
If National wins the next election it has promised a referendum on MMP. That is not to say that some form of
proportional representation would not be inappropriate but that it just might not be MMP.
Finance Company collapses
If you are interested in this issue, I made a speech to the Institute Financial Advisers on Wednesday - here is the
link: Speech - Institute of Financial Advisers http://www.richardworth.co.nz/index.php?/archives/168-Speech-Institute-
of-Financial-Advisers.html
Facebook
I have joined Facebook, and if you would like to join my page, the link is
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1317575450
Facebook has an interesting history. It was started in February 2004 and, by one count, is ranked seventh in terms of
traffic. It has more than 70 million active users worldwide.
The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American schools give
to students and staff as a way of getting to know other people on campus.
Come and join.
Political Quote of the Week
"A vision is not a vision unless it says yes to some ideas and no to others, inspires people and is a reason to get out
of bed in the morning and come to work" - Gilford Pinchot - American conservationist and public official, was chiefly
responsible for introducing scientific forestry to the United States (1865-1946)
Dr Richard Worth
National Party MP
ENDS