Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this bill on behalf of New Zealand First the Organ Donors and Related Matters Bill. It's been a pleasure to be part of the Health Committee and we have given this bill due consideration and it's good to hear that we have good support from across the House on this.In the select committee we considered and received 16 submissions from various interested groups and individuals and heard five oral submitters at hearings in Wellington. Also we received advice from the Ministry of Health. Now many of us have family stories about those who have donated—maybe from within their own close family or maybe extended family but certainly within our communities we all have stories to tell about donations whether they're kidney or other organs. So it's certainly a topic that touches many lives in New Zealand.New Zealand First will support this bill—continue our support of it—because it's going to increase compensation to be provided for live organ donors. That will actually make it easier for New Zealanders to make their organ donation wishes also known to family to whānau and also to help them to make the most appropriate decisions with the best possible support and confidence after the person who could be an organ donor dies.On that one of the considerations certainly in my mind relates to Māori and why the rates are quite low of organ donors in the Māori community—and we've heard too also the Pasifika community—and how that relates to their spiritual beliefs.One of the considerations that has been made is that it is a sensitive issue and this is really a new thing for Māori to look at this taonga as a gift—whether it's say a kidney. Maybe this is a gift to the recipient. There has been a suggestion that it is tapu. The question is: what if an organ donation actually didn't diminish tapu but actually enhanced it? One suggestion has been made—and this has been put forward by Dr Lance O'Sullivan—that a discussion needs to be had around this. Although he didn't submit to the committee he has had commentary on organ donation. One of the things that has been suggested is that at some point when the recipient of that organ donor dies then that organ can be returned and put back into the ground with the donor. So that is certainly something that Māori are going to be considering.There are two parts to this bill. Part 1 of the bill amends the Compensation for Live Organ Donors Act 2016 and Part 2 of the bill amends the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000. So that will provide for the creation of a national organ donation function to provide oversight and clinical governance of the organ donation system.We heard from as we said a number of submitters that came to the committee. The New Zealand Blood Service: they made a very interesting submission and supported the intent of the bill but they wanted to help the committee to strengthen the bill and in particular Part 2 of the bill. They saw parallels with the proposed organ donors system to the work that the New Zealand Blood Service does—the track and trace the good clinical oversight that they run in their system and the tissue typing they're already doing in the New Zealand Blood Service. So they saw great parallels there. They wanted to work with the select committee to ensure there was clarity in the bill and real opportunity to get the settings right.New Zealand donor rates are low compared to other OECD countries and so what is needed is a wider programme of reform. It doesn't provide enough clarity for the New Zealand Blood Service so that's why they wanted to work with us with this legislation. And they wanted to know particularly how it would intersect with the DHB for example—looking at whether it was worth also looking at the Australian system. So those were the considerations from the New Zealand Blood Service.One of the other recommendations from one of the submitters was that the committee was to consider substantial increases in funding.Debate interrupted.The House adjourned at 6 p.m.