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By Jane Nixon, Franklin Times ACT Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour told east Auckland business leaders the Government is focused on getting “value for money” and cutting the “red tape of regulation.” Speaking at Forsyth Barr’s Highbrook offices on October 29, Seymour said the Government is targeting improvements in health and education while streamlining compliance costs. He said merging New Zealand’s fragmented health record system was a priority. “If I was in a car crash in Hamilton, they’d have to email my doctor in Epsom while I might be bleeding out on the operating table. “This is insane,” he said, explaining that when district health boards were disestablished and centralised to what is now Health New Zealand, there were some loose ends. “They merged the health system but not the medical records.” He said the Government is now “merging the medical records”. “We’re constantly driven to get value for money on big ticket items.” On education, Seymour said attendance is the “number one determinant” of a healthy system, with a goal of reaching 80 per cent regular attendance by the end of the decade. He said the Government pays about $350,000 per citizen on lifetime education expenditure. “You wouldn’t know it by some of the results and outcomes we are getting,” he quipped. He said the number one determinant of a healthy education system is whether students are getting to school. “So, we have a relentless drive to get attendance up. “Then when you get to school, if you look at what we are doing – it’s as simple as having a teacher who is a knowledgeable adult standing in front of one classroom, not three joined together, with students paying attention and having a curriculum that is filled with rich and useful knowledge transferred to them. “Then being tested in an exam where they can’t dodge most of the knowledge at the end of the year. “None of this is complicated stuff. But it’s been neglected for 20 years,” Seymour said. He reiterated that charter schools are also “back with a vengeance”. He also highlighted new measures reducing red tape for home-based cake makers and small buildings and said earthquake regulations are being rewritten. “You name it, we are dealing with the red tape of regulation,” Seymour said. He said the earthquake regulations have been “devastating” for Kiwis. “This is why the Regulatory Standards Bill is so important. Because it asks the question ‘what are the impacts on individuals and their property while passing this law?’” He said if that had been “taken seriously when earthquake laws went through, then we would have saved billions of dollars”. “Auckland will be exempt from the earthquake laws because we haven’t had an earthquake in over a thousand years.” Seymour concluded that New Zealand remained “a success as a society”, united by an “adventurous spirit” and a drive to pioneer new ideas.
