Soper Lesley: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Soper Lesley: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:641;Page:10933] 
LESLEY SOPER (Labour) 
: 
 Dr Coleman has once again got it wrong. He is wrong on mental health again. He is using Part 2 of this bill which after all I say to Jonathan is the transitional provisions to have a go at the Government. So I say to him: “Get a life!” Dr Coleman has got it wrong again. He has tried to use Part 2 of the bill—the transitional provisions—to have a go at the Government. The fact is that this Government has actually got it right in mental health and Dr Coleman does not like that. 
All that the National Party can talk about is tax cuts and tax cuts are not going to deliver to mental health users or their families or to the professionals in mental health in the way that the current Government is delivering to mental health through the ring-fenced funding. Dr Coleman does not seem to have grasped that tax cuts are not going to do it in mental health just as they are not going to do it anywhere else. 
Dr Jonathan Coleman 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. There is nothing in this bill to do with tax cuts. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: The current speaker is actually more relevant to this section than the one before her. 
LESLEY SOPER 
: Thank you very much Mr Chairperson. That was exactly the point I was making—that Dr Coleman was using Part 2 of this bill inappropriately to get in what he felt like talking about rather than actually talking about Part 2. 
We all know that one of the commissioners’ key contributions has been to express the needs and wishes of mental health users. Now Dr Coleman might not believe that and that might not have been what his speech was about but the fact is that Part 2 is about bringing the commissioners’ terms of office into line with the Crown Entities Act 2004 and that seems an eminently reasonable thing for Part 2 to do. 
Under the provisions of this bill the Mental Health Commission is retaining its role in addressing the stigma associated with mental illness. It has a new role to stimulate research and service development and this Part 2 is very sensibly saying: “Let’s bring the commissioners’ terms of office into line with the Crown Entities Act.” It is a very sensible provision. All Dr Coleman could manage to get up to say was that the Government had somehow got it wrong. Well Dr Coleman has got it wrong. The whole bill will do far more for mental health than the tax cuts that the National Party keeps endlessly talking about. 
The innovative things that are going on in mental health and that health boards will continue to bring into place when they have managed to repair the damage in mental health done by the National cuts of the 1990s can be done best under the provisions of this bill. That is what Part 2 is about I say to Dr Coleman; that is why it is part of a good bill and why we on this side of the Chamber support its passing. 
The question was put that the amendment set out on Supplementary Order Paper 135 in the name of Hon Pete Hodgson to clause 9 be agreed to. 
Amendment agreed to. 
Part 2 as amended agreed to.