Chadwick Steve: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Chadwick Steve: Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
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STEVE CHADWICK (Labour—Rotorua) 
: 
 I found that speech made by the Opposition spokesperson on health issues the Hon Tony Ryall to be rather sad—especially when two of the National members on the Health Committee are health practitioners. It is simply disgraceful that they do not support this bill and I will tell the House my reasons. A family member of mine is a public health practitioner in Nelson. That community has been screaming out for this Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill since 1993. I wonder whether health practitioners who work in rich metropolitan areas are really aware of the causative link between the quality of drinking water and water-borne infections. If they went to Te Puia or Ruatoria the community would tell them about the number of people affected. The kaumatua and kuia would say that they know there is a sickness there and that they are losing family members to bowel cancer and stomach cancer. They say: “The drinking water here is patu but we can’t afford to fix it.” I wonder whether those health practitioners on the select committee actually listened to the submissions made by people from small communities. The answer is no those people can never come to a Health Committee to talk about drinking-water legislation. 
Why do those members not listen to public health practitioners in this country who have the evidence on this issue and clearly point out the risks to the health of 500000 or more New Zealanders who are currently exposed to drinking-water supplies that do not meet the drinking-water standards for New Zealand? Those standards are based on World Health Organization standards. We know about the outbreaks of water-borne illness that have happened in this country. The member Tony Ryall said he did not really think there were water-borne outbreaks. I tell him to get close to his public health practitioners and they will tell him. Let us look at campylobacter for example. The member said it is linked to food but it is linked to water too. The rate of campylobacter in New Zealand is that of England’s. Is that acceptable? Is it acceptable for National members to simply sit back and say that the costs to local government of implementing the bill outweigh the public benefits to those in New Zealand? I do not think so. I do not want to be part of a Government that sits and does nothing about public health protection for the well-being of New Zealanders and says the costs to local government are simply too high. 
Members opposite bleat on about Local Government New Zealand having said the costs are too high. For goodness’ sake! This Government has committed $154 million over 10 years to help upgrade small suppliers of drinking water to areas with populations under 5000. That is an astonishing contribution to benefit those small communities which of course can never meet the cost of upgrading their water supply. The Opposition has health practitioners on the Health Committee and they know about the principles of public health yet they say the cost of fixing our drinking water is too high. That is why National will do nothing and will not support the bill. But the public health sector and the Ministry of Health have been saying to local government and local bodies that drinking-water legislation is desperately needed. They have worked on the issue for 14 years and have kept asking for this legislation to be brought to the House. The National Government did nothing during its decade in office. 
We now have a bill before the House but National will vote against it. That is simply shameful. I know that the two health practitioners opposite know about public health principles and know that something should be done about safe drinking-water. Do we ignore 61 cases at a school camp in Christchurch 67 cases in Wainuiomata 187 cases in May 2001 69 cases of viral gastroenteritis at a ski field—no National would not ignore that—and 49 cases at a school camp in Waikato? That is appalling yet they use the argument that it is not necessarily linked to water. They say it could be food-based campylobacter. I cannot believe that. Those practitioners know that people who get campylobacter which is one of the potentially water-borne diseases in New Zealand can get fevers headaches abdominal pains nausea vomiting and can have as many as 10 watery often bloody bowel movements daily. Is that all right? I say it is not all right. This Health (Drinking Water) Amendment Bill will fix that problem. Nothing else does. It will fix drinking-water supplies for our poor deprived communities. 
How can Opposition members sit there and say they are not going to do anything about it? I am proud to be in a Government that says it will do something about it. This bill will raise the standards of drinking water to compare New Zealand favourably to the OECD. The health practitioners on the other side of the House will say: “Labour did nothing and how does New Zealand compare on the league tables with OECD countries?”. They know but ask what we are doing about it. Yet they vote down a New Zealand public health drinking-water bill. Well I say tell that to Dr Ed Kiddle my brother-in-law in Nelson who says: “For goodness’ sake! What are you doing? Get it into Government get it into the law.” 
The health practitioners sitting opposite know that it is simply not good enough for water-borne diseases to be so prevalent in New Zealand. I cannot believe the flip-flop the Opposition has done on this issue. The Hon Pete Hodgson was asked a question in the House and he replied: “I have had several reports. One was from the Hon Nick Smith last month stating that 24 percent of our drinking water is unsafe that that is ‘an appalling statistic’ ”—this is Dr Nick Smith from Nelson who also said enforcement action is urgently needed. The Minister’s reply continued: “I received two other reports a few months earlier. Those stated that New Zealand is known for having the best standard of drinking water in the world that it has excellent standards of drinking water and that this is a problem that does not need fixing.” Those statements were made by Dr Coleman and Dr Blue. It is simply unbelievable. 
The National Party is both deeply concerned about the quality of New Zealand’s drinking water and deeply unconcerned. If that is the nature of the National Party’s concern then it is no wonder that it has not managed to formulate any health policy of any credibility with public health practitioners in this country. National cannot even work out what it wants to do about New Zealand’s drinking water. I am very sad about that. Opposition members can carp on about this issue yet New Zealanders in every community—not just small rural isolated communities but metropolitan communities—know the level of campylobacter outbreak. I was a councillor in Rotorua where we had dairy faecal contamination of our drinking water. As local body politicians we were deeply concerned about that. We knew there were kids coming to school with horrible symptoms who were infecting their schoolmates and feeling lousy. How could those children learn? How can those practitioners opposite say that 500000 New Zealanders who are at risk from drinking-water supply systems that simply do not meet the standard do not matter. 
This bill is long overdue. I am sorry it has taken us 7 years to get it to the House. I am proud it is here now. I know that public health units around the country are saying: “Hallelujah! Bring it on!”. I believe that once the local government sector really wakes up about the $175 million we are putting in to assist local government costs it will meet this. They have said: “Bring in the standards. Bring in the bill and we will comply.” The local government sector always folds in and likes the contribution for bringing water schemes up to speed so that New Zealanders drink safe drinking-water. 
Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. I am sure that during the Committee stage we will hear the clause-by-clause breakdown. I will be interested to take my turn.