Bond Ria: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBond Ria: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 12 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:11091. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]RIA BOND (NZ First): I am proud to rise on behalf of New Zealand First and speak on the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill. This is because I reside in Invercargill I live in Southland and on behalf of New Zealand First it passionately opposes this bill. For those people at home or in their cars listening to this debate in the House tonight this bill seeks to cancel the 2016 triennial general election of the Southern District Health Board in order to provide until the repeal date for the continuation of the term of office of a commissioner for the Southern District Health Board.I have maintained throughout this process three main objections to this bill. First this bill is an appalling affront to southerners’ democratic right to vote for their own district health board representatives. Secondly we knew very little about the work done by the current commissioners back then but we were expected to take it on trust that they would do a great job and now it is expected that they will keep that job until 2019. New Zealand First does not believe in railroading the democratic process simply to fulfil a cost-cutting exercise that has already shown weaknesses in two areas: the lack of transparency and the questionable capability of the commissioners has not gone unnoticed. Thirdly the real culprit for the state of the Southern District Health Board’s fiscal woes is the Government’s terrible population-based funding formula and the amalgamation under that Government of the Southern District Health Board and the Otago District Health Board.New Zealand First believes strongly in holding the district health board fiscally accountable for the choices that it has made. New Zealand First objects to the Government taking away the power from the people—to the stripping away of votes from Southlanders by this National-led Government and the placing of all the decision-making powers with an unelected few. That really concerns us. New Zealand First respects democracy and this bill is an appalling affront to democracy. One of the basic principles in this country—look up and listen National—is the right to vote. That is what New Zealand First is protecting in the House tonight—the right to vote.This is another example of this Government putting all the power in the hands of a small unelected few because it believes it knows better. I maintain that the good people of Southland and Otago know their communities better. New Zealand First refutes the need to strip back democracy when an alternative solution exists. The Minister knows this himself—it was in the Minister’s original plan when he sacked the board. The Minister is quoted in the Otago Daily Times from a press conference he held on 18 June 2015 and again I feel the need to actually quote the Minister: “The plan is really for the commissioners to stay on as appointed members of that board and new elected members to come on at the local body election.”—in other words Minister Coleman a new board. So what happened? What happened to that? What happened to your plan?The Minister said in the Committee of the whole House that the Government is not legally responsible to follow through with his original plan that would have allowed the commissioners to be appointed to the board and the remaining number of board seats voted on in local health board 2016 elections. He said that there were no provisions in the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000. New Zealand First refutes that because this is a new board and the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 provides the Minister with the authority to appoint members to a board—a new board—to positions that would otherwise be held by elected members. So I want to put that myth to bed and I want to say that my amendment would have given the commissioner the Minister southerners and the good people of Otago a win-win outcome but that the Government voted it down. This would have addressed the complex issues facing the Southern District Health Board and would have wiped out the need for this National-led Government to strip away the vote from the good people of Southland and Otago.There is a real fear—a real fear—in our communities that the Minister will not follow through with his promise and allow us to vote for our health board in the 2019 elections. Southerners refuse to be another Environment Canterbury case study under this Government—to be given empty promises that are not fulfilled and to be forced out of voting for 9 years just like the good people of Canterbury have had to swallow.New Zealand First questions both the transparency and capability of this commissioner. This commissioner claimed in her letter to the team leader of district health board relations at the Ministry of Health that her aim was to engage with the communities in which it operates across the district. She claims to have held meetings with staff throughout Dunedin Southland and Lakes District hospitals community and health leaders all major staff unions MPs and mayors throughout the district Mobile Health Solutions—and the list goes on. As a list MP for New Zealand First based in Invercargill I was not invited along to these meetings and nor was the public allowed to attend or observe any board meetings. So I refute the claim that the commissioner has been absolutely transparent. You can sit there and laugh Mr Barclay but this is not a joke—this is not a joke. I actually want to remind the Minister that the commissioner was appointed in June 2015 yet she failed to engage in any meaningful way with our communities until she was put under pressure by the Health Committee—and that was recently too—and then all of a sudden here she is getting out there holding all sorts of public relations sessions.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I have done it to two members previously—this is quite a narrow debate on this bill. It is not a debate to go over all of the issues and I know we cannot do that in the time anyway.RIA BOND: OK. I do want to point out that southerners are totally fed up with the slow process and the secret dealings behind closed doors that we have had to date. The real culprit for the state of the Southern District Health Board’s fiscal woes is the Government’s terrible population-based funding formula and the amalgamation under that Government’s watch of the Southland District Health Board and the Otago District Health Board. We know from Cabinet papers that were released that the rurally adjusted calculation did not adequately fund the Southern District Health Board and that the district health board has missed out on the correct funding for many years. The population-based funding formula does not support regional health care and it is the real culprit in terms of why the district health board and so many others are struggling to stay fiscally sound.With such a huge geographical region to service it is no wonder that the Southern District Health Board struggles to meet its services’ needs. What constituents are telling us and what they are telling me is that they are being bumped off the elective surgery list. That is one way to cut back the deficit—forget about looking after our elderly. And God forbid that you are slightly overweight and need a knee replacement because you will have to go home and lose the weight first. Another way to cut the deficit is to contract meal services out to private contractors like Compass Group with a 15-year contract to feed our patients in hospitals and members of our community through the Meals on Wheels contract. Despite the outcry from members of the public in Dunedin and Otago from doctors refusing to eat in the cafe—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! I am going to interrupt the member again and advise her that she has to at least—it is a third reading; it is quite a narrow debate—somehow tie her comments to the bill.RIA BOND: OK. Well I will do that. This contract will not bring the $7.6 million needed originally to save the district health board. In a report released by the Medical Council just yesterday—it was printed in the Otago Daily Times—it stated that house officers at Dunedin Hospital were overworked and lacked supervision which has put the accreditation training of intern doctors at risk. I ask how is that competent?In closing this is a bad bad bill. It is bad for Southlanders it is bad for Otago people and it strips away our democracy. There are decisions that have been made behind closed doors and it does not deal with the real issue which is inadequate funding. In New Zealand First we have stuck to our guns and we have opposed this bill from start to finish. Two wrongs do not make a right. Thank you.