Brash pledges health and education spending review

Don Brash

National will review all health and education spending but believes spending will have to continue rising.

Leader Don Brash said yesterday that a National government would ring-fence health and education spending allocated for 2005-06 so there would be no cuts.

Future spending would be subjected to major baseline reviews, probably by a ministerial committee, to "re-prioritise spending".

But Dr Brash said National would still spend more on both areas in the 2006-07 year and 2007-08 year than will be spent this year as it acknowledged there were demographic and inflationary pressures.

He told the Herald re-prioritising did not necessarily mean spending cuts, but redirection of spending into more productive areas.

"I don't have the slightest doubt at all that spending on health and education is going to have to continue to rise."

Dr Brash said the baseline reviews in both areas were not to find money for National's still-secret tax-cut plan.

"What we are talking about in health and education is a re-prioritisation of spending, not a reduction in spending."

National plans to fund tax cuts through a combination of cutting public-sector "waste" and duplication identified in reviews, borrowing, running a lower operating surplus and maintaining more disciplined spending in future.

Dr Brash said he issued the statement yesterday to fight Labour's claims its tax cuts would be funded at the expense of health and education.

Finance Minister Michael Cullen, meanwhile, resurrected the spectre of the infamous razor gang which culled spending in the early 1990s under National.

He said that under the guise of promising to increase health and education spending, National was in fact promising cuts.

The Government's allocated spending increases in health and education in future years were to keep pace with demographics and inflation, Dr Cullen said.

"To reduce them would compromise health-care services and the quality of education available in our schools."

Health Minister Annette King said Dr Brash's plan not to continue Labour's forward spending path in health beyond 2005-06 would inevitably mean cuts to programmes already announced.

These would include cheaper doctors visits and prescriptions for over-45s, and cataract and orthopaedic operations.

Ms King said health spending under Labour had risen by 50 per cent but the funding had not been wasted.

"Much of it has gone into sorting out the mess left by the previous National Government when they deprived doctors and nurses of decent salaries and mainstream New Zealanders of the public health services they were entitled to."