Bridges SimonHon SIMON BRIDGES (National—Tauranga): Thank you Mr Speaker. I oppose this motion and it's worth just recounting what it does. It sets up a special separate committee in relation to a special separate Māori health authority that this bill is setting up and as I understand from what I heard on the television in my office the reason that this special committee this separate committee rather than the Health Committee is required is because the Government thinks that it is desirable to have Māori representatives in a disproportionate number listening to the debate and being part of the debate. I say that actually that is entirely wrong and I want to flesh out why that is. I'm a Māori man—right? My whakapapa through my grandmother Naku Joseph is Ngāti Maniapoto and it goes back and I could probably get out the family tree and show that Nanaia Mahuta who's made some interesting decisions public today is a distant relative. That is my whakapapa from a little marae Kinohaku in Ōpārure and I set that out because what I do accept for Māori—and dare I say it I'm not looking at anyone in particular right at the moment but Māori and Māori men do in disproportionate numbers have certain health conditions. That's true and I outed myself in my book recently—and I'm not doing a free advertorial here for National Identity—SPEAKER: Oh go for it. Hon SIMON BRIDGES: —by Simon Bridges in all good bookstores. I'm not doing that. I made quite—SPEAKER: What's the website? Hon SIMON BRIDGES: There isn't one but you know if you went to paperplus.co.nz or whitcoulls.co.nz I'm sure you'd find it. Anyway that's not the point—that is not the point. In that book I made it quite clear that I have gout arthritis—right? That is something that people may associate with I think William Pitt the Younger and various other 17th century politicians in the United Kingdom and they disastrously prescribed port Mr Speaker which as you would know I don't partake in. But that was the situation then. So it's not universally a Māori issue but it is true that in New Zealand a couple of hundred thousand - odd sufferers of gout arthritis disproportionately are Polynesian men: Māori and Pasifika males. I have in my direct family a family member who suffered at birth from club feet. The wonders of modern medicine and our skill set mean that you would never know that and he can function in the way that anyone else can. But that is another condition or issue where Māori are disproportionately affected and I think I'm right in saying that some of that is genetic. So I simply make the point that I'm Māori and there are health issues that I accept affect Māori in ways that are different and disproportionate as Māori. But let me tell the House what I as a Māori man with a Māori health ailment expect from a Māori health system and I do want to bring this into this particular point of a separate committee given it's a separate Māori health system we are setting up. What do I want? What do I expect? I'll tell you what I expect: I expect someone to fix the issue—a doctor who knows what they're doing and is competent and will deal with it. The point of that is at the moment at the Mount Medical Centre in Tauranga I go to a couple of doctors. One is Singaporean and one is from the United Kingdom and the point simply is this: I don't give a tuppence—to use another old-fashioned phrase—where they've come from or what their ethnicity is. As long as medically they know what they're doing and they're competent that's all that matters to me as a Māori man with particular Māori health ailments. The point about that is that when it comes to this motion which I think is strange and I think is wrong and hasn't been thought through by the Government is simply that the very same point I'd make about medical issues as a Māori man is also true when it comes to Parliament and select committee representation. I don't actually think it makes any substantive difference the ethnicity. What we want fundamentally is people on that committee who yep have empathy for the issues—and I'm sure there would be if it wasn't going to this special committee but was going to another committee. There would be Māori—dare I say it probably Māori men—on the committee. But ultimately what we want going through the issues in this bill are competent people who know what they're about who have empathy and who understand the issues at play. Whether it's me with my health ailments where I don't need a Māori doctor to deal with those but I just want a competent one or whether it's this select committee where we don't need only Peeni Henare Tāmati Coffey and one or two others of Māori whakapapa what we actually want is people with empathy and competence to deal with the issues. The reality is there's a committee that's exactly right for this bill—it's perfect in every single way—and that committee of course is the Health Committee chaired by Dr Liz Craig. I emphasise the doctor there. In this House we do give people their correct honorifics generally speaking. But she is a doctor and my clear understanding is that she is a medical doctor and there are other medical doctors on that committee probably of different ethnic make-ups and backgrounds. That in the end is good. It's good to have diversity some different perspectives some different backgrounds. But actually it's not only wrong thinking but I think it's probably wrong to say You know what? This just has to be over here with Māori because it's a Māori issue." To me that's a segregated way to think about it. It's segregated in the health system in terms of the substance of this bill but it's also a wrongful approach when it comes to the actual parliamentary process. What it's suggesting is that "for Māori by Māori only Māori" is the way to go and I've never thought that was right. I think Chris Bishop Ian McKelvie the Hon Jan Tinetti—they would all also bring a perspective to this bill that would be right and it would be valid in this bill. So I simply want to sum up by saying this. This bill is about a separate Māori health authority. This process in this motion is about a separate Māori select committee. I have some empathy for the fact that we would want Māori on this committee but as a Māori with health issues who goes to any old doctor I also say that—you know what?—it doesn't need to be just that way and having the right people with the competence as the Health Committee does is the right answer for this bill with subbed-in Māori members. If Tāmati Coffey wants to go along to that committee and be part of it I'd certainly be happy having voting rights and being on that committee. But actually as the ACT member previously has said on this bill even if that wasn't the case what is also true is that he could be there as a non-voting member who is able to ask questions and able to ensure that a certain perspective as a Māori man and maybe there's another member a Māori woman that had a different perspective who should be there as well—he could do that. So I think this is maybe from some good intent but it is a wrong motion. It's a motion that just like this bill shouldn't have come forward and certainly I for one as a Māori man oppose it."