Coleman Jonathan: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Coleman Jonathan: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN (National—Northcote) 
: 
 Mr Tony Ryall has raised the concern that goes to the heart of the matter as regards this bill—that is the costs imposed on local government. The amounts we have heard at the Health Committee have just grown exponentially as the bill has gone further and further through the select committee process. When we started off the estimate was for a couple of hundred million dollars and then some officials came back from a conference and said that it looked as if the cost would be $375 million. Local Government New Zealand came before the select committee and said the cost would be $800 million. When we tallied up the imposition on local government it turned out that it would cost $2.3 billion over 10 years to implement these changes—changes to a law that quite frankly seemed to be working pretty well. 
The reality is that we do not have these terrible water-borne epidemics in New Zealand. We have not really heard enough about the problem to which this bill is meant to be the solution. It seems to be a solution without a problem. We heard some sort of vague evidence about sewage having been leaked into Lake Wakatipu about 20 years ago but how that related to drinking water was never quite established. We heard some vague stuff about there having been an outbreak of typhoid in Wisconsin and that there had been some problems in the Soviet Union. There was a further story about some problems with non-compliant water in Milwaukee. But we did not really hear enough about the situation in New Zealand. We heard a lot of confusing evidence about campylobacter but then we pointed out that actually campylobacter is a disease found primarily in chickens and it is a disease of poor food-handling. So we came back to the problem that this bill was a sledgehammer solution to crack a walnut. 
Who will pay again? It will be the poor old ratepayers and the taxpayers. It will be local government paying $2.3 billion over 10 years. I think that it is a sad indictment on the Minister—and I really hope he will get up and take a call at the end of my speech—that with all the problems we have in the health-care arena in New Zealand the Government thinks that its highest priority is pushing through this Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill. We do not have elective surgery in this country. We do not have enough beds in our hospitals. People cannot get the services they need in emergency departments. But still this Minister’s priority is to look at the drinking water. 
I ask the Minister how many people died over the past year from an outbreak of contaminated water in New Zealand. Was it 100? Was it 50? No it was zero. But how many people died in our accident and emergency departments because they could not get access to the care they wanted? I would not like to quote the figure but there has been enough of the issue in the papers for quite some time to show that that is where this Government’s priorities should lie. But of course when it comes to health we have a Government whose concern is to go up to North Shore Hospital and unveil a statue that is meant to shed light in places where despair has set in. The best place for that statue may well be the Labour caucus room. But this Government rather than turning around and walking away from the site of that statue and going into the North Shore Hospital emergency department—where the real problems in the health system come to the fore—is focusing on the issue of drinking water. I would like the Minister to get up and tell us where the problem with our drinking water actually lies in this country because frankly at the Health Committee we were struggling to find a problem of a magnitude that required this level of response. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: You don’t seem to know about the quality of our drinking water. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: Oh Lianne Dalziel over there has got something to say. Not doubt she will get up in a moment and give us her opinion as well; we need the evidence. 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: I’m just gob-smacked that you don’t know about the quality of our water supply. 
Dr JONATHAN COLEMAN 
: The member says she is amazed we do not know there are problems with the quality of the water supply. She has a great opportunity to take a call and tell us as has the Minister and as have other Labour speakers. Frankly throughout this whole inquiry we did not hear any real evidence; all we heard about was the level of costs. 
This Government reckons it is great at consulting people but I tell members it is not consulting Local Government New Zealand. That is the other thing; apart from the issue of costs Local Government New Zealand told the Health Committee it has not been adequately consulted. Twenty councils came before the committee and said they will be paying over $2000 a head to enact this legislation. Two councils said they will be paying over $4000 a head. In response the Government had said that it will provide some help with capital expenditure funding. That is all very well but the real cost to the ratepayers and taxpayers of New Zealand will be in ongoing expenses. Those expenses will amount to $2.7 billion over 10 years. That is a heck of a lot of money. I would like the Minister to get up and tell us how he can justify that amount. 
We know that this Government is a tax-and-spend Government and has been very very happy to crank up the expenditure on health during its term in office. Spending has gone from $6 billion to $12 billion and one could argue that that has delivered very little in the way of tangible health outcomes. The Government is good at taxing and good at spending but it is not good at coming up with the solutions needed to fix the health problems in this country. Frankly the health of our drinking water is not a problem of the magnitude that requires this bill as the solution. 
My other colleagues will be further expanding on these themes. We will debate this bill pretty hard. We have made our concerns widely known and now Labour members need to stand up and justify why the Government is prepared to impose $2.7 billion of costs over 10 years on the ratepayers of New Zealand. I look forward to hearing about that.