Coleman JonathanHon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote): Well that wasn't very lively was it? I thought we had some sort of rule about reading speeches out in the House. I mean that was delivered very much in the tone of a parent reading a bedtime story to a small child. I'd be very interested if Dr Clark was able to throw aside his notes for a moment if he could tell us anything about what was in that bill because this is a very technical bill. It's a tidy-up effectively. It's an amendment bill and I'd like to say at the outset that the National Party will be supporting the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill (HPCAA bill). As Dr Clark said but probably can't remember because he was just reading by rote this was actually the result of two reviews into the original Act from 2003.Those two reviews first looked at the implementation of the Act. That was the first one that was done published in 2009 and that brought about a few legislative changes which are incorporated in this bill. Then there was the strategic review in 2012. So this really is going to clarify a few points around the implementation of the bill and it will just make things a bit clearer both for those responsible authorities who are administering it—there are 16 of them administering 22 professions—but also greater transparency for the public around how the professions are regulated.But I will tell you what is concerning. It is you know I mean you'd think a new Government would be pretty busy. You'd think there'd be a major agenda to push through but this is all that they can bring to the House. What are we in? The third week of February. You'd think they'd have many more important things to do. You'd think they would want to really crack on with some serious legislation in terms of the health portfolio.I mean I was asking the Minister of Health today if he'd given any specific instructions around the establishment of a third medical school because that is of course a matter that is of wide public interest. It's a matter on which the health Minister as the then Labour spokesman made a number of statements. You know what he said when we asked him if he'd issued any plans around a third medical school? He said It's not in the public interest to answer that."—it's not in the public interest.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): If I could just bring the member back to the substance of the bill.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I must say this bill is in the public interest but I think there are matters that are more in the public interest than this particular one. It'd be interesting to see if there could be any further amendments to the bill. It will be interesting to see if the Minister brings any more legislation to the House maybe describing any plans he might have in the health portfolio. Of course often plans may just be the result of policies which you then implement. They may not necessarily need legislation. But one of the things that could be amended be here and added in a Supplementary Order Paper in this Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill is that maybe the Minister might want to actually legislate for some changes that he may wish to make. Maybe he has some ideas other than those of the previous Government and maybe there might be an opportunity at the committee stage for the Government to amend this bill because by then I think the Minister may actually have had time to read it and I'm sure at the second reading Madam Assistant Speaker will be far less generous than letting the Minister just come here and read his speech by rote. It's very important that the Minister actually understands what he is spouting there—Hon Dr David Clark: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I think there is a well-established convention that where there are technical issues in the bill it is very important to have them read correctly into the record. I take offence at the Minister implying that I have not read the bill I'm bringing to the House and that I'm ignorant of it. That's plainly not true.Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Speaking to the point of order whether he's ignorant or not is a debating point.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Right OK. [Interruption] No we won't have any more points of order on this matter. Do you have any more contribution to make?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: I do actually—quite a bit. The great thing about this current health Minister is you bait the hook you cast it out. I didn't think we were going to get a bite but he couldn't help himself. He took it hook line and sinker fell into the trap and he's getting up and telling us that he is not ignorant. Well the one thing that is clear is that if he did know about what was in this bill he wouldn't have actually got up and read a speech by rote which of course is very poor convention. He did do though when he was reading what was there what he said although he wouldn't actually—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! [Interruption] Order! Look I have asked the member to come back to the substance of the bill. Can we?Hon Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN: Madam Assistant Speaker I was actually saying that what he read out was correct. It would have been better if he had spoken it but actually his description of what is in the bill—even though he doesn't understand it quite clearly—is actually correct. But look it's very important that the public can have confidence in the standards of practice of health professionals in New Zealand. They'll soon learn that they can't have confidence in this new Minister of Health but they will be able to maintain full confidence in New Zealand's health professionals because we do have excellent health professionals in this country but it is important that the public is protected.What I'm really disappointed about is as I've known for the past four months it's quite clear by the presence of this legislation in the House today that the Government has no pressing legislation that they want to push through this House and they're resorting to scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for the scraps and the leftovers that the National Government left them as we departed office and they've thought "Gee we've got to fill this Order Paper up. Thank goodness we can do that HPCAA bill. We've got something to talk about on a Tuesday night." But I'm going to be really interested to see what they've got coming up after this. I'm sure the Labour research unit will be upstairs packing themselves knowing that soon their members are going to be running out of material. But what we can say is National will be supporting this bill."