Government spin about Health New Zealand deficits can’t be trusted.

The public has the right to see the state of the books for themselves so Labour is calling for all of Health New Zealand’s monthly financial reports to be released.

“Last week the Government began to claim that Health New Zealand faced a deficit in March, but official financial statements published two weeks ago said otherwise,” Labour Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said.

“The deficit figures are being used to justify spending cuts, and the public deserves full information, not just political spin.

“The Government hasn’t got its story straight. The Prime Minister said he knew of overspends in October, Minster Reti said he knew in late March. We need to see the books to know which version is true.

“The Prime Minister hasn’t been able to prove his claim about the management structure at Health New Zealand, which is the sort of thing you’d expect a previous CEO would get right.

“The Government’s claim that overspends were due to management bloat has also been contradicted by Health New Zealand CE’s statement that nursing costs were the cause.

“This manufactured crisis is an excuse to cut over a billion dollars from health services because the Government did not fund health properly in the budget.

“We know DHBs released monthly financial statements. Health New Zealand should continue that practice.

“We clearly can’t take this Government on face value when their mistakes are leading to such huge health sector cuts, and the public deserves to know the truth,” Ayesha Verrall said.

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