Kanongata'a-Suisuiki AnahilaANAHILA KANONGATA'A-SUISUIKI (Labour): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā. It's an absolute privilege to speak on the Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill.I have fond memories of this bill because this was the first select committee I was a member of when I entered Parliament. So I want to acknowledge the team that worked this through.As Dr Shane Reti has alerted us to and reminded us of how this bill has started in this House I'm just going to give a summary of the points I'm going to talk about because sometimes I talk for so long that I forget to cover the main points. So I want to give a summary of the bill. So the summary is that this bill will strengthen and improve the National Cervical Screening Programme. It puts in place rules that allow specific health providers to have direct access to participants' screening history held on the cervical screening register information which helps determine or recalls screening referral pathways as the last member has alerted us to changing the technology because the current law refers to fax machines. So this will enable a new IT system is placed to ensure access is secure to the register.The Minister Dr Verrall had acknowledged that—in her contribution had taken us through the story and the history of how we came about it today. I want to acknowledge her leadership in telling that story because it reminded us of exactly why this is needed. So the Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that was provided made it practical to ensure the changes to the National Katiaki Group can continue. The National Kaitiaki Group can continue to have oversight of the Māori data. I want to quote Dr Verrall because she did say a quote: A turning point for Māori women's health about the sanctity of the whare tangata." That's where the Government's SOP came about to ensuring that the National Kaitiaki Group can continue to have a good oversight of Māori data while at the same time ensuring the programme's in tune with data and information management activities can continue at pace.Why is this important? This bill is important because it saves lives. One hundred and sixty women develop cervical cancer every year and sadly 50 women die from it. This is sad. It's just sad because almost all cases are preventable or can be treated if found at an early stage. So that's why this bill is important.The bill will improve services provided by health providers. When I made mention to access to information being faxed that in itself sets us back decades and a great barrier to access to information. So for health providers who provide cervical screening—which includes the medical practitioners Family Planning as mentioned before and sexual health clinics—nurses and midwives working in primary healthcare can have access to the data. Also having access—well we all know I'm not a doctor but knowing my health history will help my doctor provide treatment for me. So access to a participant's screening history information is crucial in terms of clinician decision-making when a cervical screening test is undertaken.I want to also refer to the National Cervical Screening Programme and how it plans to develop a new register. So the new register can amongst other things provide as I've said before secure information secure computer direct look up access to the register for health providers working in primary healthcare. The legislation changes will ensure that secure computer direct look up access to the register for health workers is explicitly and directly authorised by this legislation.One of the concerns that one of the groups that submitted the national Māori Women's Welfare League—their concern was about privacy of information and about the ability of the kaitiaki group to maintain the access to data of Māori women and this can still happen in this bill.As much as I hate and it's sad that I refer to 50 women dying from cervical cancer each year the majority of those women are Māori are Pacific and are Asian. So this bill will in its journey help save lives. So the services provided by Māori and Pacific providers are primary health organisations. Some DHBs one Whānau Ora commissioning agency a non-Government agency—those services that provide the services will have secure access to information to be able to support women as they go through this.We talk about in this House that it is a cervical screening programme. We talk about it in just words but for women it's a journey that takes a lot of thinking to get done. But I just want to if I forget in my contribution remind women that it is a long journey to think about getting your screening done. It's challenging for us to think about ourselves first but really do make this a priority in your life. I want to challenge the men in women's lives to make it a priority for yourself because if your partner is a woman and you have daughters it's you—well it is everybody's responsibility to ensure that women get the help they need.So also this bill what the bill does it clarifies the meaning. Like I said before I'm not a medical practitioner but we call it the "smear". The words the definition of "smear" is now no longer applied under this bill. The bill amendment has proposed the definition of "screening test" within; the phrase "smear" is removed so it's no longer a "smear test" that it's a "screening". So one reason for the amended definition as I said I'm not a practitioner moving away from using the term "smear": sometimes it's not a positive word to use.I did mention before in terms of protecting the Māori data and how that will be protected in terms of clause 6A and the National Kaitiaki Group. The reason why it's important to—why we should legislate this response in terms of 6A is because it is important. The National Kaitiaki Group is a group established under the health cervical screening regulations since 1995—that is important. In my second contribution and I think today I mentioned it once is the whare tangata which in Tongan we call it the fonua which is whare tangata. In terms of my understanding of how I translate my Tongan views aligning it with Te Ao Māori it is the "house of humanity" and the data of Māori woman should be treated that way that it is sanctity that it is information that you would—because of the history that Dr Verrall had taken us through in her opening statement of how women weren't informed about their information how they weren't informed that they were being used in a clinical test without them knowing that's why it's important that the role of the kaitiaki group continue. The role needs to be still in legislation to keep that important in this bill.In my last seconds of this bill I want to acknowledge those who have lost their lives due to cervical cancer. Perhaps if we removed the barrier earlier we could have saved a few lives. But on that note I commend this Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill to the House."