Macindoe TimHon TIM MACINDOE (National—Hamilton West): Madam Chair could I begin by thanking Minister Clark for his kind comments. Could I also join in with others in congratulating you Madam Chair on your accession to the role of Assistant Speaker. It is a role that I'm sure you will perform very well. As another former senior Government whip in the House I have no doubt that you've left that particular office with a degree of enthusiasm but reflecting on an experience that was worth having—but probably one you're happy to move on from.I'd like to pick up on one of the final comments that the Minister has just made and to say that I was in Hastings yesterday and had the opportunity to meet Dr Kevin Snee. I was very pleased to be able to do that. As the Minister has just said he is of course the current chief executive of the Hawke's Bay District Health Board (DHB). I can assure the Minister that yes Dr Snee did indeed say that he is very much looking forward to the challenge and a considerable challenge it is that he is undertaking. Naturally I and in fact I would say everyone in my Waikato region wishes him very well in that challenge. I look forward to welcoming him to Hamilton next month when he arrives to take up his position. I also join the Minister in thanking Dr Karen Poutasi who is widely respected and extremely experienced for the role that she is undertaking currently as the commissioner while we're without a board.But I would just like to put a few questions to the Minister if I may. It'll be a short call but given that it was his decision to replace the board with a commissioner I know that my constituents are looking for a pretty clear indication of how we will get back to normal with a well-functioning board. I appreciate that he's just made the comment that he was not satisfied overall with the performance of the board but I've got some specific questions I'd like to ask the first of which is: what exactly was the process that he undertook in reaching that decision? I do want to acknowledge that he paid me the compliment of ringing me shortly before he made his decision and I appreciated that but I'd like to know who else he consulted with so that we can all be clear about the process. In particular what were the specific factors that led him to conclude that it was necessary to take the significant step of dismissing our board—and I do emphasise our board"—and installing a commissioner because I am left wondering whether other DHBs around New Zealand should consider themselves to be on notice that they too may face that fate particularly if budgetary and service delivery shortcomings were the main factors behind his decision?Apart from the well-publicised and inexcusable actions of the previous chief executive—and the Minister's just alluded to that—that led to that person's abrupt resignation what were the problems our Waikato DHB faced that made their performance markedly different from other DHBs that are also currently struggling with growing deficits and declining outcomes such as lower elective surgery rates longer waiting times for cancer patients falling vaccination rates and so on that we're seeing under this current Government?The final question I'd like to put to him is that while the National Party has cautiously supported this bill to this point—and we continue to do so in our shared desire with the Government to restore sound governance and performance to the Waikato District Health Board—I do remind the Minister that we did so on condition that local democracy will be restored as soon as possible and in the expectation that Waikato citizens will again have the right to elect their DHB representatives at the 2022 local body elections.So my final question to the Minister in the chair is: will he reassure the House and my constituents today that that remains his firm intention and in the unlikely event that his Government remains in office this time in three years what benchmarks will he be putting in place to measure that the improvements that he's seeking have been achieved and that that restoration of local democracy can be guaranteed? So I'd just like to finish by echoing the compliments that've been paid to Derek Wright who has done a magnificent job as the interim chief executive and all his team for holding the fort through very difficult circumstances and again I wish Dr Karen Poutasi and Dr Kevin Snee all the very best in the important work that they are undertaking for our region."