Williams Poto; Mallard TrevorPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): I just want to remind the House of what we are actually debating here this afternoon. What we are debating is basically an error in the appropriations documents that were presented to this House at Budget time. That is what we are debating. We are debating the responsibility of the Minister of Health to actually get his appropriations correct when he presents them to the House.When he presented to the Health Committee of course none of this actually came up for discussion. We are only just finding out now in recent days that there was an error made and the Ministry of Health in response to that error said to the district health boards (DHBs): The error that we've made—we won't require you to give that appropriation back to us. We won't require that."And then a couple of weeks later lo and behold we got a completely different story. We got a flip-flop from this Minister. He came into the House the Minister in his usual arrogant and dismissive way and said: "Well the people of Rotorua at the rugby on Saturday they don't understand the population-based funding formula." Well they may not understand the mechanisms that we use to fund the health system but they sure as heck understand how difficult it is to get any decent health services under that arrogant dismissive Minister. I for one am saying to that Minister: "You may say it makes no material impact in terms of your budget but it certainly makes a material impact in terms of the people who receive health services."I want to refer to a specific set of issues and that is what happens with mental health in Canterbury. The situation is pretty well known to everybody. We have been talking about it for some years now. It is widely discussed. It is widely known and agreed that we have a problem with mental health not only in Canterbury but across the country. But we have some specific issues in Canterbury and we know that prior to this Budget our district health board was talking about a $45 million hole in mental health support—money that had to come from other services to bolster up the support that our community needs around its mental health.It is not going above and beyond to say that mental health services in Canterbury are probably at crisis point. We are getting clinicians and staff telling us of the difficulty they have in supporting people around their mental health issues. But it is not only that—rural New Zealand is expressing deep concern that people are unable because of isolation and because of lack of resources to access support for their mental health. We are talking about particularly vulnerable people throughout Canterbury.I just want to refer to some articles and reports that have come out over recent months. Cate Broughton reported in May that "The workload associated with high numbers of patients under care is putting significant pressure on clinical staff and compromising quality … Every month some adult patients slept in other wards"—these are mental health patients—"as there were not enough beds to accommodate them. … Children and adolescents assessed as having less urgent cases were waiting an average of four months for a second appointment." So children and adolescents who are experiencing mental unwellness are waiting for 4 months to get a second appointment.Hon Ruth Dyson: It's disgraceful.POTO WILLIAMS: It is more than disgraceful. But there is more. The Prime Minister's Youth Mental Health Project reports that came out in December showed that there were six areas assessed across the country but that Christchurch youth—east Christchurch youth—were at the most risk: "Youth in Christchurch's eastern suburbs are more likely to have self-harmed and suffered anxiety depression and low self-esteem than others in the country. … Data from three schools showed 36 per cent had high anxiety or depression 28 per cent had self-harmed 43 per cent suffered low self-esteem …". More than that they have nearly 60 percent of children under 12 years of age waiting more than 3 weeks to get the support they need—kids under the age of 12 have to wait 3 weeks to get mental health support.This is another damning piece of information: "Last year police callouts for attempted suicides rose 60 percent"—60 percent—"from pre-quake levels the highest in the country. Canterbury saw a 37 percent increase in people entering mental health services … Rural mental health presentations were up 65 percent. Emergency health presentations have risen 104 percent psychiatric emergency assessments [are up] 124 percent." So when the Minister stands in the House and says the people of Rotorua at the rugby may not have understood what population-based funding is about—no they may not understand the mechanisms but they sure as heck understand what it means to them as people who are trying to access health services.I want to give you a couple of stories from my own constituency from my own electorate. I get people coming to me to intervene on their behalf to try to access health services. I have a story about a 19-year-old constituent who since December has attempted suicide three times. She cannot get an appointment for an assessment for at least 2 months. She is a young woman she has got her life ahead of her she is actually working and when she is in a low mood that is when she needs support. When she is starting to feel that depression coming on that is when she needs the support—not to wait 8 weeks for somebody to give her an appointment. She has had to come into the MP's office to try to get me to intervene with health services to get her an appointment. It is lucky that I have some connections with mental health services in Canterbury and have been able to effect an appointment for her within a few days but she was canny and came and saw me and tried to get some help. What happens to all of those other young people who do not know where to go? It should not take the MP to intervene on her behalf to get an appointment—someone who has attempted suicide three times since December.I also want to talk about another constituent of mine. His mother has come to see me on several occasions. We have been working on this for a while. In fact this case is one that I have passed to the Minister for Disability Issues—when she can stop looking at the harbour—to actually take some initiative over. A mother who has a severely autistic child who is assessed as requiring 36 hours of support each week has only ever received in the region of 6 to 9 hours support up until December where he has been receiving none. His mother has had to care for that boy because he has not had the support he requires. She subsequently had a stroke. What does it mean for his care if his mother is becoming so unwell that she cannot care for him because she cannot access the support she needs for him? When that Minister stands in the House and says that the people of New Zealand do not understand the population-based funding mechanism—they sure as heck understand the impact on them when they are trying to access health services.I have had people come to me to intervene to get them back on the waiting list for knee operations—people who are contributing to the workforce and who actually need to get their knees repaired so that they can continue to work. Do we not want people to work? We do not want them accessing sickness benefits because they cannot work because of their knees. We actually want them to work. So people are coming to their MPs to get support to get on to the waiting list because this Government is saying that you do not need to throw more money at it. Actually in some cases you do. The issue is not that we have not got the capacity to do the work in Canterbury; we have not got the staff to do the work in Canterbury.I have to say that this is not just an issue about funding. It is actually about a matter of trust and the worthiness of this Government to govern. In recent weeks we have had some really disturbing occurrences happen. We have had Alfred Ngaro threatening the community and voluntary sector. We have had Nicky Wagner being completely dismissive of people with disability issues and disability organisations. We have had what can only be described as a cover-up in terms of what has happened down in Clutha-Southland. I have to say there is one thing: the people are watching—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member's time has expired. I think she got even further off the point at the end."