National's Nicola Willis and Labour's Tangi Utikere. Photo: RNZ
National's Nicola Willis and Labour's Tangi Utikere have gone head-to-head in this week's Morning Report political panel.
It comes after patient advocate Malcolm Muholland delivered a petition at Parliament on Tuesday, signed by more than 90,000 people calling for the government to do more in health.
Muholland has spent the better part of a year travelling the country, collecting signatures, and seeing first hand the problems faced by patients and healthcare professionals.
He has suggested many people would be willing to pay more tax, if it was ring-fenced to be spent on health.
But during the panel, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said another tax was not the way to improve the health system.
Willis said extra tax was not needed, because the government was investing record amounts in the health system as a proportion of overall spending.
She said the government has hired thousands of nurses and hundreds of doctors, which was critical for getting people care faster.
Willis and Utikere were also asked for their opinion on the latest Ipsos poll, as well as food prices and supermarket competition.
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