Little AndrewMENTAL HEALTH (COMPULSORY ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I present a legislative statement on the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill.The bill before us amends the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act and is a very significant step. That's a 1992 piece of legislation—so now nearly 30 years old. It's a piece of legislation that has come in for a fair amount of criticism not the least of which was from a mental health and addiction review commissioned by this Government in 2018 in a review that reported at the end of that year. As members will know that report known as He Ara Oranga made 38 recommendations for change and the Government agreed to accept 36 of them. One of the recommendations was specifically in relation to this piece of legislation. The recommendation was that the whole legislation should be rewritten and we are in the process of doing that.But this amendment bill touches on a small number of provisions—some of the more insidious provisions—provisions that are regarded as breaching human rights and going against the Treaty of Waitangi. So that is why we thought we should bring this on with some expedition so that we make those changes so that the law in relation to the detaining of people under this compulsory piece of legislation is somewhat more civilised than it is at the moment. As I said this is just one of a group of recommendations made by the committee the review group putting together He Ara Oranga to improve our mental health sector. There's no question: it was very very poorly run down over many years. When the new Government arrived in October 2017 it made a priority to get on with reviewing doing a stocktake to see what the problems were and actually starting to make change. I'm very pleased to see the progress that has been made. I don't hear a lot talked about it publicly at the moment. A lot of people are saying not much has changed; a lot has changed—a lot has changed. Nearly 400 new full-time equivalent roles have been added to our mental health system to assist people. Those with mild to moderate mental health needs actually now can get some help—all funded by the Government. There is a huge capital works programme to rebuild some of the acute facilities in our system. That work is under way. It's not acknowledged by a lot of people. It's not acknowledged by those opposite who ran the system down but it's actually very important. Now we have yet another fulfilment of a recommendation. Add to that the establishment of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission; add to that the establishment of the Suicide Prevention Office—none of it acknowledged by members opposite. They bury their heads in the sand because they don't want to know that it's happening because they so badly ran down the system they are terrified that it's going to now start to get better. This amending legislation is just another arrow in our quiver to improve the mental health system.The sorts of things that it does make sure that those parts of the current legislation that are in breach of people's basic human rights—especially in relation to indefinite treatment orders—change. We will not have them anymore. This amending legislation will do away with indefinite treatment orders. That's what the sector asked for that's what the review group in He Ara Oranga recommended and that's what we're doing. We're doing that at the same time as we are doing a full rewrite of the mental health (compulsory assessment and treatment) legislation. So those indefinite treatment orders will now go. It will not be possible to get them. It's important because many people—particularly Māori NGOs clinical staff lawyers academics and many others—have criticised the fact that those indefinite treatment orders represent such a breach of basic human rights and also a breach of the Treaty of Waitangi. There will not be that sort of arbitrary detention. If people are to be committed for compulsory treatment there will be a review date. People are treated properly and civilly as you would expect for their human rights to be properly observed. Those indefinite treatment orders will go. Any compulsory order for treatment will have to be reviewed at the end of a 12 month period at the very least. That will make a big difference.The second thing that this amending legislation amends is the ability for those patients who are under a compulsory treatment order who need to be transported to be transported safely. There will be some ability to provide some restraint so that it is safe for themselves those accompanying them and those providing the transport—drivers and the like. So that's a safety thing and that has been recommended. Others have suggested—brought to the Government's attention—that actually in the interests of safety for those people we need to make that change. There are those who are detained because they come under the forensic mental health services and we need to know that as they are being transported if they pose a risk or are a danger to themselves they can be transported safely. There's only a small number of people to whom that sort of provision applies but it needs to be put in place.The amendment enables agencies experienced with the type of transport such as the Department of Corrections to be able to do so to provide that assistance to provide whatever reasonable restraint is needed to do so so that their staff and indeed anybody else travelling at the same time are kept safe. There are safeguards. The safeguards include to make sure that there is a requirement that it is absolutely necessary that it is the least restrictive option that people are kept safe and that the use of the power to do so is reported to the Director of Mental Health. And you'd expect that in this more human rights oriented and more civilised approach to mental health treatment.The other amendment included in this is really a continuation of what was provided for under the COVID legislation and that is to allow a family member participating in a hearing in relation to a patient who is detained under these compulsory treatment orders to attend via video means or audiovisual means. The feedback on that was extraordinarily positive. Family members found it much easier for them to participate. Patients themselves appreciated having a family member present and actually I think those running a particular hearing found it useful to have family members able to attend by those sorts of means. It might seem like a small technical change; actually it makes a huge difference to those who have to go through this particular experience.On that basis I again acknowledge this is just yet a continuation of the incredible amount of work that is being done by this Government—the $1.9 billion programme over five years to rebuild our health services which were so badly run down by the previous Government. It is very good to see this. It's a principled piece of legislation it's a positive piece of legislation and it's a very positive programme to improve our mental health services so badly and appallingly neglected by the previous Government. I'm very proud to stand here and commend this bill to the House.