Collins Judith: Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Health (National Cervical Screening Programme) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:615;Page:11275] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 I want to deal with a couple of issues that do not seem to have had a lot of airtime so far. One of those is the issue of education. The bill does not actually say a lot about education except in the negative and that is in relation to the kaitiaki regulations. 
One of the things that really shocks me as a woman of now 45 years— 
Opposition members 
: Surely not! 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Yes and today too. 
Opposition members 
: Happy birthday! 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: I am shocked that a lot of women have very very little knowledge about cervical cancer. Basically if they do not read about it in magazines such as  
New Zealand Woman's Weekly 
  
New Idea  
or  
Woman's Day 
—I do not want to miss out any—then they generally do not know about it. The fact is that a lot of us women get our information about such things from women’s magazines because we do not all come from a medical background. I am really concerned that we are not doing enough to educate women about cervical cancer. That is one of the problems. In particular the issue of the kaitiaki regulations was brought up in the Health Committee. I mention that issue now because to me it is an example of something that was brought in in an attempt to be culturally sensitive to the needs of Maori women—and I will not blame the current Government for it because it is not its fault and that is probably the last time it will ever hear me say that. Those regulations prevent information about Maori women's cervical cancer screening rates from being published or from being accessed without yet another very difficult and complicated process having to be gone through. 
I was appalled to hear in evidence in the select committee that Maori women's cervical cancer rates were something like four to five times those of non-Maori. That is an absolute national disgrace. One of the awful things I learnt was that this information is not available out in the public. Nothing is being said about it. Partly that has to do with the causes of cervical cancer. The causes seem to include the wart virus which is so easily spread and is something that people need to talk about. I know we do not normally talk about these things in the Chamber but this is actually extremely important. The virus is something that can be spread by men so it is a male issue as well. 
Until we stop hiding behind cultural sensitivity and start telling the truth Maori women will be hard done by. They will be worse off than anyone else because they are not getting the information. They are not being told the truth; nor is anyone else. That is a real crying shame. I am appalled we are not dealing with that issue. I note that in the report back to the House we made comment that some of us were very concerned that access to this information was not being made available to screening programme evaluators. It really does need to be. I am sure that once this bill becomes an Act it will have to come back to the House because some tweaking will need to be done on a cross-party basis. I hope that by that stage we will be big enough to own up to the causes of cervical cancer and do what we can to stop women from getting it. 
This evening I was speaking to my sister who rang me up to wish me Happy birthday". She is a registered nurse and is somewhat older than I am. She said to me: “Judith can you please mention the fact that women are getting cervical cancer at a much greater rate and a much earlier age than ever before.” She puts it down to the fact that women are engaging in more sexual activity at an earlier age and with more partners. That is something we need to deal with. I know that all the men around here are saying: “Ooh ah that’s awful! How can you mention that Judith?”. The fact is it is true. Until one starts talking about the situation it will not change. If what it takes to make any scrap of difference is for me to speak about it in the House then I jolly well will. It is about advising women and girls particularly those who are most at risk. We must be able to tell girls aged 12 13 14 15 and 16 that cervical cancer is a very serious and often fatal disease that it can be prevented but because they will not know whether they have it or are carrying the virus that causes it they will have to be extra vigilant and extra careful. I really do hope that we can get some sort of message across. I would love to hear that the Ministry of Health is going to do something about it. 
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