Salesa Jenny: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSalesa Jenny: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 December 2015. Volume:710;Page:8619. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill. This bill will exempt the Southern District Health Board from the 2016 triennial district health board elections and it will enable the elected commissioners who are currently there to stay in place after December of that year so that they continue to govern the district health board for another 3 years. As far as I know this is the very first time that such a 3-year extension has been applied to the health sector.The Labour Party supports this bill to the next stage but we have some concerns. One of those concerns is that there is a lack of transparency around the district health board’s actual situation right now. Earlier this year in April the Minister rejected rumours that a commissioner would be brought in to sort out the Southern District Health Board financial mess. However the struggling board members were fired just 2 months later in June. Public meetings were also scrapped in the same month.Communication with staff and the public has since that time also been questionable. In June the Minister stated that the 2016 election for the Southern District Health Board would go ahead and that new members of the board were expected to take up their roles after the next local body elections in September and October of next year but a spokesperson for Dr Colemanthe Minister of Health said that a return to an elected board next year had not actually been promised as stated in the Otago Daily Times. And here we are in December debating the law change needed to delay democratic elections in the usual cycle and leave the appointed commissioners in place for several more years. In a statement last week Dr Coleman said that the commissioner and her deputies were starting to turn the deficit challenge round. Apparently an improved deficit position of $35.9 million for 2015-16 for the Southern District Health Board has been agreed which shows that progress is being made. Staff on the other hand report no discernible difference.The district health board runs crucial public health services vital to the lives of many many people in the south. The funding model for health is indeed broken. The Government continues to under-resource health services and that is one of the main issues here. The Government has underfunded health by $1.7 billion in real terms since 2010. Refusing to carry out a full review of the funding model is having adverse effects across the country for the Southern District Health Board and many other district health boards—nine the last time we counted.The Southern District Health Board area is the largest geographically here in New Zealand. The problems that it is today facing partly flow from the merger of the Otago and Southland district health boards 5 years ago. At that time very little thought was given as to how the merger would impact on the region. Figures released earlier this year seem to show that the Southern District Health Board had actually been starved of the necessary funds that it needs. The Government should ensure that adequate funding of the region’s health needs is not put at risk. The Government must develop a plan. It should have a map. It should have genuine deliverables and ensure adequate resourcing with a plan that is robust and it should actually make these plans available to the public.The Minister cannot keep pushing the responsibility for sorting this financial mess out on to the commissioner behind closed doors. If indeed as the Minister states the situation is showing improvement why not return to democracy and public accountability at the very first available opportunity—at the next local board elections? It is very unclear why or even whether a 3-year extension is suddenly required.I look forward to the debate and clearer information as this bill progresses through the select committee. Thank you.