NZ First Associate Health Minister Casey Costello must explain whether she deliberately misled media over the funding of Plunket to falsely claim she has kept her party's promise, NZNO says.
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said information given to media from Casey Costello's office differed from that provided to NZNO under the Official Information Act.
Casey Costello told RNZ in September that funding for Plunket had increased by 17.5% since the Coalition Government took office "in line with the coalition agreement" between NZ First and National (page 8) to "ensure Plunket is funded to do their job properly".
However, Paul Goulter says information provided by her office to NZNO in October showed the funding increase was 9.85%, under the inflation rate of 10.10% over the same period.
"The Minister's figures excluded a $4.8 million pay parity adjustment for the 2023/24 financial year which artificially increased the percent increase to 17.3%. Te Whatu Ora has now told the Post they provided the Minister with a baseline funding figure for 2023/24 which included the pay parity funding.
"So why did this funding figure fall off when it got to the Minister's office? And if the pay parity adjustor was related to a separate contract, why was it included for subsequent years?"
Paul Goulter says it was a "convenient mistake" which enabled Casey Costello to claim the $13 million funding increase under the Coalition Government "exceeds cost pressures".
"Casey Costello cannot claim an increase under the rate of inflation delivered on the Coalition policy, especially after a new survey of Plunket workers revealed the impact of underfunding and short staffing on Plunket's whānau and workers.
"This broken promise shows NZ First can't be trusted to fulfill their campaign pledges," Paul Goulter says.