National's race policy excludes GP visits

Don Brash

On the same day Don Brash claimed race-based political correctness was "infecting" the country, he revealed National will run a health subsidy system favouring regions with high Maori populations.

National, which has yet to release its health policy, had, until yesterday, not said whether it would roll back universal subsidies.

Dr Brash confirmed to the Herald that people in those regions would continue to get the subsidised visits - now on average $25 cheaper than normal GP visits.

This means there will be full subsidies for entire populations in regions such as Northland, South Auckland, Rotorua and the East Coast.

Dr Brash said: "People getting a subsidy now won't be losing it."

Asked if giving subsidies to some regions based on a formula using "race-based" funding contradicted National's one-law-for-all policy, Dr Brash signalled that the party would work out a new formula.

"You can use a different formula, without [it being] race-based."

Dr Brash said he was "not very comfortable with that somewhat anomalous situation, but we don't envisage removing subsidies from people who have now got them".

Labour introduced the subsidies for doctors' visits and prescription charges through the Primary Health Organisation system, using a formula which gave cheap visits to people in areas with high numbers of Maori and Pacific people, elderly and the socially deprived.

National attacked the deal at the time as "race-based" funding.

Health Minister Annette King said National's planned subsidy system would be "absolutely unfair" in the long term. Given the party's criticism of race-based funding, it was also "a big dose of hypocrisy".

Although Dr Brash referred to "race-based" funding in his speech entitled We Are All New Zealanders before an audience of 700 in Whangarei, he did not mention any "race-based" programmes the party might have in its sights.

But as revealed in yesterday's Herald, he confirmed that a number of key Maori organisations would be put under review, with a view to their abolition over time.

That includes Te Puni Kokiri (the Maori Development Ministry), Te Mangai Paho (the Maori broadcasting funding agency), the Waitangi Tribunal and the Maori Land Court.

The tribunal and the Office of Treaty Settlements, also under review, would receive more funding to ensure National's treaty settlement deadline would be met.

Dr Brash refused to say how much more funding the organisations would get, prompting Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen to call on him to come clean.

Dr Cullen said that to meet National's plan, funding would have to rise from $16.7 million a year to about $65 million - yet no provision for it had been made in National's alternative Budget.

Dr Brash reiterated that the Foreshore and Seabed Act would be changed, but offered little detail. All treaty references in legislation would be removed.

There was little focus on the Maori seats, on which Dr Brash and his deputy, Gerry Brownlee, have given mixed messages. But Dr Brash said after the speech yesterday that abolishing them was "absolutely" a coalition bottom line, and Mr Brownlee, who had earlier said it was not, fell into line and backed his leader.

National MP Georgina te Heuheu, who was sacked as Maori Affairs spokeswoman after Dr Brash gave his first Orewa speech, said she was pleased that the speech stressed National wanted to work with Maori in good faith.

Prime Minister Helen Clark downplayed the speech - part of a deliberate strategy to attempt to deny Dr Brash oxygen on the issue.

"The sequel is never like the original blockbuster," she said. "This seems a bit of a rehash of things they have said before."