So the health budget always increases each year in nominal terms. However when you account for population increase, demographic change, and inflation this government has, in real terms reduced spending.
It has been reported in NZ Doctor, as recounted by Ian Powell in a Newsroom article. Consulting health economist Peter Huskinson ( until last year Northern region support services director for Health NZ) has calculated that spending on health per person actually decreased in the latest Budget.
Controlling for inflation and population, the per-person spend grew on average 4.7 percent per year during the Helen Clark Labour-led government (1999-2008), 1.3 percent during the John Key-Bill English National-led government (2008-17), and then 4.6 percent over the last Labour-led government (2017-23). He projects a reduction of 3 percent under this Budget.
Huskinson concluded, as reported by NZ Doctor, that the current government’s spending on health has declined and is actually “well below anything achieved this century in New Zealand or comparable countries.”
Why opposition parties are not making this point over and over, and asking Lester Levy about it is beyond me.
Instead the government continues to claim record health spending and bad Te Whatu Ora budgetting as the issue (a recent article in The Post set out how the government is counting the same money some four times to spin the line of record health spend. I will find the reference on my other computer and put it up).
Thanks Andrew. Yes I recall publicising that chart & data from Huskinson in July as well as in subsequent months.
And is one of my favourite graphs - well not visually, but data wise.
I didn't pick up The Post analysis & will be interested - but in my opinion, the issue is these snippets are only shared to a minority - and the mainstream headlines never seem to capture it.
I have no experience about if the opposition are simply powerless or if the media won't play ball in proper analysis (outside of Newsrom for example).
Opposition parties are not challenging Lester Levy and the government because senior MP's and their families likely have private health insurance. Certainly Lester Levy can afford it - indeed given his position he might even get mates-rates.
⁉️"opposition politicians" can talk til they are blue in the face but unless we all watch Parliament when they are sitting we won't know because corporate media doesn't report them most of the time 🤷🏻♀️
True. But the two Coalitions of Corrupt Cretins know that ‘winning’ in the debating chamber is irrelevant. They are targeting their funding to misinforming those who have no understanding of our political systems, be they district, regional, or central government.
They must have their reasons but why the opposition does not use the power of social media is beyond me.
My feeds are entangled by the many tentacles of the right but not the left. Weird.
Something to do at the next election eh. Last time their candidates pretended to be asking voters about Crime and Water which implied they could/would deliver.
I live in an area with a lot of older National Party voters who are very well aware of the link between their healthcare options and current policy, despite being mostly reliant on the NZH. Some of them are suffering from severe cognitive dissonance, they cannot yet bring themselves to admit/believe that ‘cutting the waste’ actually means reducing services that THEY need.
They're following the Trump formula, which is "we don't care what the dissenters say" - so long as they can keep "packaging it up" and lying/denying as needed, they believe it will carry them through safely - supported by right wing mouthpieces and money of course.
I wish I could say, John, that I'm confident they will fail. The truth is I don't know.
At what point do Dr Reti's actions, and conflicts, trigger the Health and Disability Commissioner to investigate to protect the health and safety of the public?
They hide beind double speak, & "gaslighting" as the Nurses call it - and statistics they compile and reports they hide.
It's hard when we face such blatant dishonesty and public perception would need to be for this - (I circle to the thought of media again as capable of marshaling such support)
Of course there could be wealthy left wing benefactors - but I have seen none of concrete willingness. It could be crowdsourced but who would want such a responsibility?
The lies are perpetuated by big media. It is no coincidence that newspapers and online feeds are dominated by blue collar crime stories (Luxon coming home to go to the Nelson funeral). Very little analysis by big media of the monetisation of our natural assets like hydroelectricity - Gisborne power lines sold to Mitsubishi. Offshore plantation owners are daily buying up vast areas of pastoral land for pine trees and getting a free ride for their logs on our roads (Desert Road closed for two months) plus the "investors" get carbon credits to enable them to pollute. I think money has to be disregarded as a solution because the deepest pocket will always win. Witness Trump/Musk. Te Pati Māori groundswell offers some hope
Thank you Tui, I like your fiscal approach, may you always prosper.
I cannot/ will not understand any NZ er who will not vote this dastardly Govt out in 2026, over their Health management alone! Except of course those who think that a robust health system is something that they do not need. Until they have an acute illness that private health care wont touch.
I have always been very proud of our health care, compared to many countries, we are so fortunate. Until now.
There are many lies that are out there - e.g. "there is no money left" and the current government are being "forced" to do what they are doing.
Patently false.
And there are many fake accounts out in social media that intentionally spread disinformation and misinformation to help this current government. e.g. blaming the Maori "gravy train" instead of focusing on real root causes and effects.
For a long time, I've wondered why so many Kiwi will get outraged at Luxon's tax free $52K accomodation allowance to live in his own apartment because he turned his nose up at Premier House - but don't care about the much bigger issues at play.
Yes, he's greedy, entitled and tone deaf - but in the scheme of things, this is nothing compared to the harm from their policies.
And I'm starting to conclude it's because many can't or don't have the time to draw the line from government policy to "ordinary person impact".
They won't see that their inability to get a GP or have to wait months to see one, or to get rejected for a colonoscopy has anything to do with the government's lies around healthcare - or even their choice to fund roads - most of us need short pithy statements and "it hits me" examples / obvious and easy idiocy example before we pay attention.
That AND the fact that in my perusal of social media, 85% of people aren't aware of most of what I share - tells us the weakness of media and communication channels. i.e. they are not getting the trail / theme or focus on the topics that I might synthesise - and in lieu of talkback radio and NZ Herald screaming it from the rooftops - it seems they think things are just chugging alone.
The changes to Meta/Facebook policy will be seized on by bad faith operators because ironically misinformation/disinformation is their super power.
It took te Pati Māori to expose Seymour's spin and provoke a ground swell with old -fashioned oratory oppressed people (the non-voting majority) can relate to. Labour needs to pay attention
I know this is getting a bit personal, but MAN! Lester Levy is quite the caricature of "the slimy bureaucrat" one would often see in children's cartoons.
It would be comical if he didn't wield so much power over such an important sector like Healthcare. Ayesha Verrall & Ingrid Leary did their best to press Levy & his team on their shenanigans without breaching the rules of the hearing. They are heroes!!!!
It really bums me out to know that most Kiwis are oblivious to this happening & they see the struggling healthcare system as "nothing new". I think that is a MASSIVE problem we will have in this country, is convincing Kiwis that this is NOT the business as usual struggles of the healthcare system.
I often think of What Bernard Hickey has said in some of his podcasts/articles, the HC system is resilient under strain, but removing all these resources out of the system removes that resilience. It is going to collapse & that will prime Kiwi voters for privatization.
Is it possible to sue a govt for the impacts that they have? I know in theory we can vote them out; but that doesn’t seem to make a real difference. To be fair, this lot are particularly nasty; but it’s not like the health system was in brilliant shape back in 2023.
I believe executive power is fairly unprecedented and they can't individually be held liable. The "state" i.e. government can be sued, but these individuals are all protected....that's my understanding.
The health system wasn't in brilliant shape back in 2023, but I think the difference here is it seems to be intentionally being broken down.
Here's a recent report on how they want to cut more staff from childrens' health, maternity, sexual health - and they are told it's not workable - but as with all these changes, what it looks like they don't care about the feedback or the ramifications:
Also in watching the Health Select Committee, I saw Levy boasting about how he can break the deficit.
But a deficit is artificial - it's just about whether a govt is willing to fund or not!
And it's been well publicised Lester Levy artificially constrains deficits - like he did in past DHBs - and as soon as they need to go back to normal operations i.e. actually function with staff and with investments - his numbers go to normal
And the example of their attempt to "cook the books" i.e. employ creative and abnormal accounting practices - shows who they are. And the tricks they appear to play.
👍🏾Excellent article as usual. I was reminded when going through the research to submit to the RSB that this strategy was what Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble et al did back in the day...🤬 Overwhelm with so much misinformation allied with rapid & unchecked change that people can't keep up or just give up trying 😵💫 And whose disciples are copying their playbook ⁉️(which pre-dated Trump & his lot 🧐)
In my private life I've weeded out any like this, but so disappointing "normal people" still support them as they try to wreck our future quality of life... As you have said before, people will DIE because of the gross incompetence & /or ideological hubris of these a🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬es 😢
So those guys did it too eh? I suppose deception and lies is a tale as old as time. Humans - some show us the better way and some show us the less appealing.
Flood the zone with shit, said Steve Bannon. Repeat a lie often and people will believe it, said the Nazi propaganda master. We don’t have to agree with the facts, said Sean Spicer (Trump man).
We need a 'hikoi for health'. Our traditional media is mostly missing (or been sacked) in action reporting on this and/or either running scared or under threat from owners pandering to the right-wing (politicians or funders of). Opponents can shout all they like but unless it's publicized nobody sees/hears it. It's depressing and enraging. We are being crushed by those with money and power. Thanks for being one of those that continue to rally against the injustice and lies.
Thank you for your continual efforts to inform us.
It is very sad that 85% of social media users don’t appear to know much at all (about our history or, as Covid showed us, anything at all).
I wonder how many (actually how few) of our media population have read Jane Kelsey’s 1993 book (Rolling Back the State: Privatisation of Power in Aotearoa/New Zealand)?
Many people heard and seen on commercial media are too young (and/or too lazy?) to know much about our recent history. But those of us who are written off as “boomers” have seen the shenanigans before.
"1984 saw the dawning of the free market over Aotearoa/New Zealand. It brought with it the privatisation of power, and the centralisation of the residual state. The entire political, economic, and social structure was turned on its head."
"Many Pakeha believed they were losing control of their destiny. For Maori this had been an unacceptable reality for over 150 years. By 1993 Aotearoa/New Zealand had become a nation in crisis."
"Jane Kelsey challenges all New Zealanders to come to grips with the new country we live in and work towards regaining control of our lives and the future for our children."
Levy and Reti are a pair of disgraceful mongrels ripping the life blood from our public health system. I am approaching a year of waiting for orthopedic surgery to my knee. Their end game is the promotion of American style health insurance schemes and we all know how well that is going eh! New Zealand is being catapulted to a user-pays health service where those without the financial ability to go private simply lose out.
So the health budget always increases each year in nominal terms. However when you account for population increase, demographic change, and inflation this government has, in real terms reduced spending.
It has been reported in NZ Doctor, as recounted by Ian Powell in a Newsroom article. Consulting health economist Peter Huskinson ( until last year Northern region support services director for Health NZ) has calculated that spending on health per person actually decreased in the latest Budget.
Controlling for inflation and population, the per-person spend grew on average 4.7 percent per year during the Helen Clark Labour-led government (1999-2008), 1.3 percent during the John Key-Bill English National-led government (2008-17), and then 4.6 percent over the last Labour-led government (2017-23). He projects a reduction of 3 percent under this Budget.
Huskinson concluded, as reported by NZ Doctor, that the current government’s spending on health has declined and is actually “well below anything achieved this century in New Zealand or comparable countries.”
Why opposition parties are not making this point over and over, and asking Lester Levy about it is beyond me.
Instead the government continues to claim record health spending and bad Te Whatu Ora budgetting as the issue (a recent article in The Post set out how the government is counting the same money some four times to spin the line of record health spend. I will find the reference on my other computer and put it up).
Thanks Andrew. Yes I recall publicising that chart & data from Huskinson in July as well as in subsequent months.
And is one of my favourite graphs - well not visually, but data wise.
I didn't pick up The Post analysis & will be interested - but in my opinion, the issue is these snippets are only shared to a minority - and the mainstream headlines never seem to capture it.
I have no experience about if the opposition are simply powerless or if the media won't play ball in proper analysis (outside of Newsrom for example).
Andrew - thanks to your prodding I added the chart above (to the end). Many thanks.
Opposition parties are not challenging Lester Levy and the government because senior MP's and their families likely have private health insurance. Certainly Lester Levy can afford it - indeed given his position he might even get mates-rates.
⁉️"opposition politicians" can talk til they are blue in the face but unless we all watch Parliament when they are sitting we won't know because corporate media doesn't report them most of the time 🤷🏻♀️
💯 I despair at our media and am grateful for those that are left.
We need journalists who ask questions, analyze, compare, contrast and work for public interest
Unfortunately real journalism is now few and far between and places like Stuff and NZ Herald are trash with their own agendas
True. But the two Coalitions of Corrupt Cretins know that ‘winning’ in the debating chamber is irrelevant. They are targeting their funding to misinforming those who have no understanding of our political systems, be they district, regional, or central government.
They must have their reasons but why the opposition does not use the power of social media is beyond me.
My feeds are entangled by the many tentacles of the right but not the left. Weird.
Fully agree.
Yes Cindy I believe that is correct!!
Yes, Cindy I believe that is correct
Do you have health insurance was one of the questions asked in one of the pre-election Hipkins-Luxon debates. Luxon does, Hipkins doesn't.
Would be very interesting to ask all MPs the same question.
Something to do at the next election eh. Last time their candidates pretended to be asking voters about Crime and Water which implied they could/would deliver.
The article link https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360524335/smoke-and-mirrors-health-funding
Got it.
I live in an area with a lot of older National Party voters who are very well aware of the link between their healthcare options and current policy, despite being mostly reliant on the NZH. Some of them are suffering from severe cognitive dissonance, they cannot yet bring themselves to admit/believe that ‘cutting the waste’ actually means reducing services that THEY need.
Hope they come to that realisation real soon then, although I suspect nothing is stopping this train wreck.
Thankyou Tui for your continued watchfulness of the vipers nest.
My wish is that people get angry, now, '26 is too late to recover from the damage.
A further wish is that a Ghandi like leader emerges, capable of marshalling we peasantry to civil disobedience.
That we peasantry outnumber the 'born to rule' is our strength
They're following the Trump formula, which is "we don't care what the dissenters say" - so long as they can keep "packaging it up" and lying/denying as needed, they believe it will carry them through safely - supported by right wing mouthpieces and money of course.
I wish I could say, John, that I'm confident they will fail. The truth is I don't know.
At what point do Dr Reti's actions, and conflicts, trigger the Health and Disability Commissioner to investigate to protect the health and safety of the public?
They hide beind double speak, & "gaslighting" as the Nurses call it - and statistics they compile and reports they hide.
It's hard when we face such blatant dishonesty and public perception would need to be for this - (I circle to the thought of media again as capable of marshaling such support)
Of course there could be wealthy left wing benefactors - but I have seen none of concrete willingness. It could be crowdsourced but who would want such a responsibility?
I'll see if there are more options.
The lies are perpetuated by big media. It is no coincidence that newspapers and online feeds are dominated by blue collar crime stories (Luxon coming home to go to the Nelson funeral). Very little analysis by big media of the monetisation of our natural assets like hydroelectricity - Gisborne power lines sold to Mitsubishi. Offshore plantation owners are daily buying up vast areas of pastoral land for pine trees and getting a free ride for their logs on our roads (Desert Road closed for two months) plus the "investors" get carbon credits to enable them to pollute. I think money has to be disregarded as a solution because the deepest pocket will always win. Witness Trump/Musk. Te Pati Māori groundswell offers some hope
Thank you Tui, I like your fiscal approach, may you always prosper.
I cannot/ will not understand any NZ er who will not vote this dastardly Govt out in 2026, over their Health management alone! Except of course those who think that a robust health system is something that they do not need. Until they have an acute illness that private health care wont touch.
I have always been very proud of our health care, compared to many countries, we are so fortunate. Until now.
There are many lies that are out there - e.g. "there is no money left" and the current government are being "forced" to do what they are doing.
Patently false.
And there are many fake accounts out in social media that intentionally spread disinformation and misinformation to help this current government. e.g. blaming the Maori "gravy train" instead of focusing on real root causes and effects.
For a long time, I've wondered why so many Kiwi will get outraged at Luxon's tax free $52K accomodation allowance to live in his own apartment because he turned his nose up at Premier House - but don't care about the much bigger issues at play.
Yes, he's greedy, entitled and tone deaf - but in the scheme of things, this is nothing compared to the harm from their policies.
And I'm starting to conclude it's because many can't or don't have the time to draw the line from government policy to "ordinary person impact".
They won't see that their inability to get a GP or have to wait months to see one, or to get rejected for a colonoscopy has anything to do with the government's lies around healthcare - or even their choice to fund roads - most of us need short pithy statements and "it hits me" examples / obvious and easy idiocy example before we pay attention.
That AND the fact that in my perusal of social media, 85% of people aren't aware of most of what I share - tells us the weakness of media and communication channels. i.e. they are not getting the trail / theme or focus on the topics that I might synthesise - and in lieu of talkback radio and NZ Herald screaming it from the rooftops - it seems they think things are just chugging alone.
The changes to Meta/Facebook policy will be seized on by bad faith operators because ironically misinformation/disinformation is their super power.
It took te Pati Māori to expose Seymour's spin and provoke a ground swell with old -fashioned oratory oppressed people (the non-voting majority) can relate to. Labour needs to pay attention
We are being worked over!
Not just patently false, patiently…
Thanks Mountain Tui,
My goodness!!!
I know this is getting a bit personal, but MAN! Lester Levy is quite the caricature of "the slimy bureaucrat" one would often see in children's cartoons.
It would be comical if he didn't wield so much power over such an important sector like Healthcare. Ayesha Verrall & Ingrid Leary did their best to press Levy & his team on their shenanigans without breaching the rules of the hearing. They are heroes!!!!
It really bums me out to know that most Kiwis are oblivious to this happening & they see the struggling healthcare system as "nothing new". I think that is a MASSIVE problem we will have in this country, is convincing Kiwis that this is NOT the business as usual struggles of the healthcare system.
I often think of What Bernard Hickey has said in some of his podcasts/articles, the HC system is resilient under strain, but removing all these resources out of the system removes that resilience. It is going to collapse & that will prime Kiwi voters for privatization.
Great comment by Hickey and agree it’ll take a lot to re educate folks
This is an orchestrated attack on our public health system. Thank you Tui for continually speaking out, and keeping those enabling it accountable.
You're very welcome Lyn - always good to see you.
Is it possible to sue a govt for the impacts that they have? I know in theory we can vote them out; but that doesn’t seem to make a real difference. To be fair, this lot are particularly nasty; but it’s not like the health system was in brilliant shape back in 2023.
I believe executive power is fairly unprecedented and they can't individually be held liable. The "state" i.e. government can be sued, but these individuals are all protected....that's my understanding.
The health system wasn't in brilliant shape back in 2023, but I think the difference here is it seems to be intentionally being broken down.
Here's a recent report on how they want to cut more staff from childrens' health, maternity, sexual health - and they are told it's not workable - but as with all these changes, what it looks like they don't care about the feedback or the ramifications:
https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-post-1022/20250110/281543706566897
Also in watching the Health Select Committee, I saw Levy boasting about how he can break the deficit.
But a deficit is artificial - it's just about whether a govt is willing to fund or not!
And it's been well publicised Lester Levy artificially constrains deficits - like he did in past DHBs - and as soon as they need to go back to normal operations i.e. actually function with staff and with investments - his numbers go to normal
And the example of their attempt to "cook the books" i.e. employ creative and abnormal accounting practices - shows who they are. And the tricks they appear to play.
👍🏾Excellent article as usual. I was reminded when going through the research to submit to the RSB that this strategy was what Roger Douglas, Richard Prebble et al did back in the day...🤬 Overwhelm with so much misinformation allied with rapid & unchecked change that people can't keep up or just give up trying 😵💫 And whose disciples are copying their playbook ⁉️(which pre-dated Trump & his lot 🧐)
In my private life I've weeded out any like this, but so disappointing "normal people" still support them as they try to wreck our future quality of life... As you have said before, people will DIE because of the gross incompetence & /or ideological hubris of these a🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬es 😢
So those guys did it too eh? I suppose deception and lies is a tale as old as time. Humans - some show us the better way and some show us the less appealing.
Flood the zone with shit, said Steve Bannon. Repeat a lie often and people will believe it, said the Nazi propaganda master. We don’t have to agree with the facts, said Sean Spicer (Trump man).
We need a 'hikoi for health'. Our traditional media is mostly missing (or been sacked) in action reporting on this and/or either running scared or under threat from owners pandering to the right-wing (politicians or funders of). Opponents can shout all they like but unless it's publicized nobody sees/hears it. It's depressing and enraging. We are being crushed by those with money and power. Thanks for being one of those that continue to rally against the injustice and lies.
It is depressing and enraging Joanna. I plan to write a post about what we can do, but it's an unbalanced scale for sure.
Thank you for your continual efforts to inform us.
It is very sad that 85% of social media users don’t appear to know much at all (about our history or, as Covid showed us, anything at all).
I wonder how many (actually how few) of our media population have read Jane Kelsey’s 1993 book (Rolling Back the State: Privatisation of Power in Aotearoa/New Zealand)?
Many people heard and seen on commercial media are too young (and/or too lazy?) to know much about our recent history. But those of us who are written off as “boomers” have seen the shenanigans before.
"1984 saw the dawning of the free market over Aotearoa/New Zealand. It brought with it the privatisation of power, and the centralisation of the residual state. The entire political, economic, and social structure was turned on its head."
"Many Pakeha believed they were losing control of their destiny. For Maori this had been an unacceptable reality for over 150 years. By 1993 Aotearoa/New Zealand had become a nation in crisis."
"Jane Kelsey challenges all New Zealanders to come to grips with the new country we live in and work towards regaining control of our lives and the future for our children."
(https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/Rolling_Back_the_State.html?id=zC7tAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y)
Levy and Reti are a pair of disgraceful mongrels ripping the life blood from our public health system. I am approaching a year of waiting for orthopedic surgery to my knee. Their end game is the promotion of American style health insurance schemes and we all know how well that is going eh! New Zealand is being catapulted to a user-pays health service where those without the financial ability to go private simply lose out.