Coleman continues dinosaur approach

Any hope that the new health minister would have a more sensible approach to funding of DHB loans has been rapidly extinguished by the feeble response of Jonathan Coleman to the Democrats for Social Credit (DSC) Party’s enquiry as to his stance on providing loans through the Reserve Bank, according to DSC health spokesman David Tranter.

As the DSC has repeatedly pointed out, if the DHBs could access loans through the Reserve Bank, which the government is empowered to facilitate under the Finance Act, this could slash total costs by as much as half compared to the costs incurred under the usual rates charged to DHBs for such things as building projects.

Clearly Mr Coleman is under the thumb of the Key/English finance brigade who, for reasons best known to themselves, obviously want DHBs to struggle to provide services when they are financially hampered by successive governments' dinosaur approach to finance, Mr. Tranter said.

Although Mr. Coleman's response is pathetically weak it is worth quoting if only to show just how pusillanimous successive health ministers have become concerning this crucial matter. In it he states "I understand that you have had previous contact with my predecessor Hon. Tony Ryall and that he has answered accordingly. There is nothing further I can add to the responses already provided to you about the government's position on this matter”.

Both Tony Ryall and Bill English have consistently failed to provide a logical answer as to why their government, like previous administrations, wish to drive DHBs unnecessarily into debt.

In the absence of any sensible response we can only assume Messrs English, Coleman and their mates want DHBs to hand over precious health funds to the finance sector for the benefit of their shareholders instead of the New Zealand public, Mr. Tranter concluded.

ends

© Scoop Media