Doocey MattHon MATT DOOCEY (Minister for Mental Health): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. Look it will take some time for the effects of the last Government to be corrected—a Government that was a failed socialist experiment that set this great country New Zealand back. When you think about the one trick they had in their playbook to centralise—whether it was like the three water reforms that went down like a cup of cold sick whether it was Te Pūkenga the polytechs reform—and let's focus on the health reforms hitting through the health system like a wrecking ball in the middle of a pandemic. Even their own Heather Simpson report said to go from 20 DHBs to 12. But they knew better. They knew better than all the health professionals they knew better than the public and they went through our health system like a wrecking ball to demolish it in the middle of a pandemic. That's what we pick up the pieces from today. I welcome Health New Zealand's approach to regionalise the health service. We need the accountability and the responsibility to go back out into regional and rural New Zealand—to connect where the need is so that decision making can be made as close to the need as possible. That is vital in an area like mental health where we need local solutions for local needs. What we have had in the last couple of weeks is further reports from organisations like the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission where they laid bare the last Government's track record on mental health. All this announced funding and what difference did it make? No material difference. You've got to scratch your head and say: how could you announce so much funding but not make a difference? But I tell you what. To give the last Government credit they could do that. They had a track record in that and they had a history of making large announcements and making very little difference.In the coming financial year we will spend $2.6 billion on the ring-fenced mental health and addiction and suicide prevention funding. That is a significant amount of money. Last financial year it was $2.4 billion. With the $200 million uplift that comes through Budget 2024 $2.6 billion is going to be spent. It's important that in this Government we make sure that that funding is prioritised on the right need it's targeted in the right need and it goes to the right area. So we have been very clear. Under this Government we will increase access to timely support not just treatment services but prevention and early intervention as well. For people to address their needs they need access and we will provide faster access.The second thing we need to do is grow the workforce. The Auditor-General reported several months ago that we did not have a mental health and addiction workforce plan. It beggars belief. Under six years of the last Government there was no plan to grow the workforce. So no wonder people are stuck on waiting lists. You've got a growing workforce vacancy rate in our mental health services because we don't have a plan. That's what this Government will do: have a plan to grow our workforce.We're going to strengthen the focus on prevention and early intervention to intervene earlier in vulnerable Kiwis' lives and improve the effectiveness of services. So when we spend hard-earned taxpayers' money we know it's going into services that will make a difference. That's why for the first time in the health plan in the Government's policy statement for health we have mental health targets where 80 percent of people will see primary mental health services in one week; 80 percent of people will see their specialist services within three weeks. I spoke to my counterpart in Scotland recently. Their Government target is 18 weeks. We have just set a target for three weeks. We're going to increase the baseline training of mental health and addiction workforce from 423 a year to over 500 mental health and addiction specialists out of baseline. And we're also going to ring fence our mental health funding so 25 percent is spent on prevention and early intervention.It's a privilege to be part of a Government that will deliver for New Zealanders.