National’s Jonathan Coleman and Labour’s David Clark squared off twice over the weekend in debates on TVNZ’s Q+A, and TV3’s The Nation.
Dr Coleman said Labour’s health numbers did not add up, labelling the boost "mythical" and "smoke and mirrors".
"They are simply rolling out normal baseline increases and comparing them with a mythical situation of an alternative government that apparently doesn’t add a single dollar to health expenditure for four years.
"The Labour massive extra spending myth also shows up in the amount of new budget money they propose to add each year.
"Labour is planning to add less in health for each year in the next four years than the National Government has added in the last budget alone," Dr Coleman said in a press release.
In the TVNZ debate, Dr Clark said Labour’s spending promises were costed and independently audited. Labour has previously argued National effectively cut $2.3 billion money from the health budget since taking office in 2008. It has promised an $8 billion increase to health over four years.
