Genter Julie AnneJULIE ANNE GENTER (Green): It is with great pleasure that I rise to speak on this bill the Financial Assistance for Live Organ Donors Bill. I have to start by congratulating Chris Bishop my colleague and his colleagues who went before him on introducing this bill to the members' ballot. I think it is a fantastic contribution to the legislation of Aotearoa through the members' bill process. It is so rare that we get these great contributions from Government members in the members' ballot. It is great to have a bill come through that is supported by all parties in the House that is a good use of time and that will make a real difference to the New Zealanders out there who are awaiting an organ and to those who might be considering donating. I was not the Green Party member on the Health Committee while this bill was being heard by it. I took up the health portfolio in just the last few weeks. My colleague Kevin Hague did follow this process and I know he was extremely supportive of the bill from its first reading and during the select committee process and so I checked with him before giving my speech tonight to ask what went on in the select committee.Chris Bishop: How long are you going to do that for?JULIE ANNE GENTER: Just for as long as we have bills coming up that I was not on the select committee for. I think it is fair enough but I checked with my colleague who did sit through the submissions. I did go back and look at the notes and the submissions. My colleague Kevin Hague who is extremely experienced in the health sector having been the CEO of a district health board and the head of the AIDS Foundation before that—many years in the health sector—had nothing but positive things to say about the entire select committee process. That does not surprise me because in the short time that I have been a member of the Health Committee I have found all of the members to be extremely constructive and very collegial. It is a very collegial environment. It is a fantastic experience in Parliament to be on a select committee where everybody is so collegial and open-minded and looking to get the best possible outcome for New Zealanders. I do think that the people of New Zealand would like to see more of that behaviour from all of us in Parliament and I wish that they could see what happened in the case of this bill. There was a whole number of changes recommended by the select committee that improved what was already quite a good bill. Many of the members in the debate tonight have already gone through the detail of the bill and some of the changes that were made. I will just go through a couple of the ones that stood out for me. Obviously the bill is looking to reduce the financial barriers to organ donation which is a very laudable goal. I have heard members comment in the debate tonight that New Zealand has a very low rate of organ donation. My understanding is not so much that we have a low rate of organ donation particularly from deceased organ donors but that there is simply a very long list that far outstrips the number of donors that occur. We would not want there to be an increase in the number of deceased organ donors because we are looking as Barbara mentioned earlier to try to reduce the road toll.Hon Simon Bridges: Don't use her first name.JULIE ANNE GENTER: I was not sure how to pronounce her surname.Hon Simon Bridges: Come on.JULIE ANNE GENTER: Is it Kruger? Kuriger? It was Kuriger. OK got it Barbara Kuriger. We are looking to reduce the road toll so as a consequence of that we will need an increase potentially in live donors. There were 53 deceased organ donors in 2015 which was the largest number ever in New Zealand and a 15 percent increase on the previous year. It was a 47 percent increase from the 36 donors in 2013 so that is a good trend. The 53 deceased organ donors donated organs—heart lungs liver kidney and pancreas—to 158 transplant recipients in 2015. So that was again a 14 percent increase from the 138 recipients in 2014. Last year there were also 78 live donors who donated a kidney or part of a liver to 78 recipients. So although there were fewer deceased organ donors than live organ donors the deceased organ donors obviously make a greater contribution to those needing live organs because live organ donors cannot donate as many organs. So overall the trend has been good but there is much more that needs to be done and this bill is a step in the right direction.Hon Simon Bridges: What should we do?JULIE ANNE GENTER: Well it is a step in the right direction. Obviously some of the other members mentioned things were being investigated such as opt-out policies for deceased organ donors. But in respect of live donors reducing the financial barrier is a big step to making it possible for more people to take that option of being a live organ donor. One of the changes that was recommended by the Health Committee which was interesting was supporting the principle of cost neutrality for donors. So rather than just looking to provide financial assistance they will be reimbursed at 100 percent of their income and that is very much in-line with the type of support—in fact it exceeds the support—that one might receive from ACC if one is recovering from an injury. I think this is an important step and it certainly reflects a principle that the Green Party holds dear when it comes to the role of Government—that it is a fundamental role of Government to protect and empower people and to ensure that people's health is provided for. That is the role of Government and this bill is reflecting that principle: that there is a role for our Government to support people to do things that are in the public interest that help their friends their family and other people who are living in this country to recover from illnesses that they are suffering from and to be able to make a greater contribution to Aotearoa. I think that this principle could be applied much more widely in other areas and that Government can and should be doing more to support people and the best possible health outcomes that we could have here in our Aotearoa. One way that Government could be supporting better health outcomes would be to focus on opportunities provided by prevention. As my colleague Kevin Hague mentioned in his first reading speech on this bill there will be a growing need for live organ donors particularly for kidney tissue because of the alarming increase in the rate of diabetes and prediabetes here in New Zealand. Type 2 diabetes is a preventable chronic disease and it is something that we should be looking to prevent as well as to treat. There are many opportunities for prevention. Barbara Kuriger and Louisa Wall mentioned the Diabetes NZ Fitbit Movement Challenge in November raising awareness about diabetes and the opportunities to get more incidental exercise and to have a more healthy diet. But fundamentally this is not something that can be left to individuals because it is not just an individual problem; it is a social and environmental problem and it is greatly influenced by decisions that Government makes—for example in the area of transport. Since the Minister of Transport is here in the Chamber I thought I might take this opportunity to mention that there is a huge opportunity in transport to achieve public health benefits like reducing diabetes. Before I entered Parliament I worked as a transportation consultant and I was a lead author on a research report for the New Zealand Transport Agency called Valuing the Health Benefits of Active Transport Modes. What this research report did was it looked at all the different public health research on the costs and benefits of people getting more activity. Eventually it came up with and recommended a number which was adopted by the New Zealand Transport Agency in the economic evaluation manual so that it was easier for local authorities and central government authorities to predict what the overall economic benefits would be of investment in projects that facilitate people walking and cycling for short trips. I am very proud of that research and the fact that it is being widely used today. I think that it is an example of just how important it is for Government to think outside of the health portfolio when we are thinking about how we are going to deliver optimal health to the people of New Zealand. That is another win-win approach that I would hope could be picked up by this Government and implemented such as this great bill which we are very happy to support this evening.