SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National—Whanganui): Kia ora e Te Mana Whakawā me tēnā tātou katoa. This evening I speak from a professional perspective as a practitioner having worked in mental health law for many years—a couple of decades actually. The member seated in the chair beside you David Seymour is well aware that when this debate first came about before it went to public submissions and hearings I had cautioned the member and actually provided some professional advice from my experience as a practitioner in mental health and compulsory treatment assessment law—that Act dated 1992—that there were clear safeguards and protections in place which would be a good premise and guideline and a baseline for this proposed legislation. There are a number of lenses and context that I will be addressing the committee on particularly around clause 8 and it has been debated at some length—excuse me just picking up my notes—but not from the perspective of a cultural lens. As a Māori practitioner and as a lawyer working in the field it's very clear actually and the member is again well aware that the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act 1992 has clear guidelines there in terms of the engagement from a cultural perspective with family whānau and the wider social construct. In fact clause 8 as is proposed under this law may have been well guided and supported by looking at the Mental Health Act. Section 5 under the mental health Act specifically talks about powers to be exercised with proper respect for cultural identity and personal beliefs. There's no such inclusion under this proposed law. I premise again from a professional basis as a lawyer and as a Māori woman working in this field that this proposed law is culturally unsafe but it is also unsafe to the individual and the most vulnerable. I don't have any prepared notes so I'm speaking very much based on my experience from the head—the logical rational side—but also strongly from the heart. The cultural lens that I hear when we talk about wellbeing welfare protecting the most vulnerable—this legislation doesn't do that. I've heard time and time again in this House and particularly we debated in the House earlier this year the Coroners (Access to Body of Dead Person) Amendment Bill and the importance of the engagement from a cultural perspective around how we care for and treat the deceased body. There's nothing about this in terms of how we care for and protect the living body and the vulnerable person. Should I get the opportunity to talk about that further at another call I will but I also will share that whanaunga Dame Tariana Turia who is an advocate speaking against this bill is saying that this would allow a person to request a euthanasia death without talking to their family—section 8. I harken to my colleague across the House Louisa Wall talking about encouraging the medical practitioner—and a medical practitioner by the way is not somebody who has specialised in the area of establishing competency; that is what a psychiatrist is there to do and that only comes about at the third level of an assessment. Under the mental health Act Madam Chair I again draw to the attention of the member beside you David Seymour that it's clearly outlined the stages and steps that are there and required to check that the most vulnerable person who is the person labouring under a supposed mental health disorder—in this instance a vulnerable person who is labouring under the decision whether or not they're competent to decide to live or to die. There are clear guidelines that are safe and stepped out under the mental health Act that should have been there as a baseline around the safeguards and the protections of this proposed law. From a professional basis this has got to be one of the most irresponsible repugnant unsafe proposed pieces of legislation that I have heard put before the House and we will continue to debate strongly against it until such time that those safeguards and those protections for the most vulnerable are put in place with a cultural lens and perspective. Thank you Madam Chair.