McAnulty KieranKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. I wonder why the National Party aren't too keen to speak on this bill. They are framing it as if it doesn't need to have anything else said. But I wonder if there's another reason. I wonder if it's because the Waikato District Health Board (DHB) and the problems that this bill is attempting to fix by delaying this year's elections through to 2023 and giving the commissioner time to fix the mess—I wonder if the reason they don't want to speak is because this mess happened under their watch. I suspect that is the exact reason why they do not want to speak on this; why we saw a Hamilton-based MP and Tim Macindoe stand up for a couple of minutes and want to speak about absolutely everything except what was in this bill.This bill is trying to address a problem that has been a long time coming. Under the previous nine years under the National Government $2.3 billion was stripped from the health service in this country. Is it any wonder that this bill is required that this bill has to come into place and extend the local body elections for the Waikato DHB because that DHB was in such a mess? There were accusations of fraud that occurred under that watch. There was bad management and bad decisions being made for a long long time that should have been fixed under the leadership of the chair appointed by the previous National Government. But was it? No.Here we are today with the Minister of Health who was forced to make a decision only earlier this year to bring in a commissioner to look after the Waikato DHB. That is why I believe that the National Party are accusing us of filibustering and not speaking on it themselves. It is because they do not want to speak on this. They do not want to dwell on the reasons why this bill is necessary. I want to acknowledge those that did their utmost to try and save the situation they found themselves in: Sally Webb and Derek Wright came in at the last minute and tried to save an unsaveable situation and I think they need to be acknowledged. They did their best but by the time that they came in the situation at the Waikato DHB was too far gone. Greg O'Connor: Terminal.KIERAN McANULTY: This situation as my friend and colleague Greg O'Connor just interjected was terminal and there was only one diagnosis there only one thing that could fix it and that was imposing a commissioner on the Waikato DHB. Now I do agree with the other side of the House that nobody actually wants to see a situation arise that requires a bill of this ilk but we are here. We are here and the writing has been on the wall for some time when you have independent research that indicates that if Waikato DHB received the funding that they needed to keep the services up that they had 10 years ago then we would have avoided the situation that this bill seeks to address. It was bad management it was neglect and it was totally avoidable.That is why we have to put in a commissioner it is why we need to extend the commissioner's reign until 2023 and it is why we have to introduce legislation to do the extreme measure of extending out local body elections. That has happened before under the previous Government and they had the support of the House because in that instance it wasn't a case of people being appointed by the Government of the day to oversee decisions that are being made; it was a case of coming in and having to save a situation that was not of the Government's making but drastic measures had to be made.That is why we have seen accusations against the Green Party that were unfounded. That is why they have come in to support this bill because they realise that it is not the people of Waikato that have to suffer—it is not their fault; it is the fault of negligence. It is the fault of underfunding and it is the fault of decisions that should never have been allowed to be made that were made and that is why we're in the situation that we're in. They were asleep at the wheel. It was bad decisions and here we are having to fix up yet another mess.So I have absolutely no hesitation whatsoever in commending this bill to the House and congratulating the Minister of Health for making the tough decisions. I feel sorry for him. He spent so much time in only 18 months having to clean up the mess that he's inherited.