Reti ShaneDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a pleasure to speak to the third reading of this bill a bill that we will be supporting. I want to acknowledge the contribution of the Health Committee members in getting it to this stage. My contribution tonight will have two substantive parts: the first will talk about the process a few points on the process of the bill and the second will talk about the politics of the bill. The process has three parts to it. First of all as we heard from the member who's just taken her seat Dr Liz Craig there were issues raised from submitters around the consequence on democracy of not allowing the district health board (DHB) elections to proceed in 2020. I'll actually come back to that in a later point but this is a very fair and of course obvious element to raise. Again I support the member's view that fundamentally this would be handing a newly-elected DHB a whole set of complex financial and clinical problems that would be very unfair for them to be asked to manage and indeed I believe they'd be set up to fail. So yes we do understand that democracy takes a back seat here for the 2020 elections but we think to give the new board the best opportunity it is the wisest course to take. Māori also raised the question about the appointment of a new commissioner particularly the Iwi Māori Council and Waikato-Tainui and whether they could have involvement. Unfortunately the process did not allow that but I did just want to register their interest in doing that. I think one of the interesting points that was also raised for us was what is the cost of the commissioner versus the board. Hon Member: That's a good point. Dr SHANE RETI: It is a good point and it turns out that the commissioner—who I do support Dr Karen Poutasi I've known her for many years—has a cost of roughly $230000 per annum against the board stipend of $320000 per annum. So there is some saving there but of course there is a cost that we mustn't go past. The second part I want to talk to is the politics of this bill and I'm framing this under the two h"s. The first "h" is deliberately directed at the Minister and the Labour Party and it's an "h" because it's hoisting the Minister on his own pedestal. In the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill where exactly the same purpose that we're seeking to achieve here was put in place for the Southern DHB David Clark said at the first reading that the Minister now had no one to hide behind. There was no board to hide behind—it's straight and directly to him. I agree and this now applies to the Minister. In fact he also said "Any remaining impression of ministerial distance from decision making is sacrificed with the appointment of this commissioner". So this will very clearly now point right back to the Minister. His words were accurate then; they're accurate now. There is no buffer; if this fails it fails clearly on the Minister's watch. The second "h" stands for hypocrisy and points at the Green Party. When the same bill or a similar bill in 2016—which I'm talking to the Southern DHB bill—came to the House at the first reading and in fact at every reading the Greens were vehement about the issue of democracy being removed—absolutely vehement. In fact Metiria Turei said this: "The whole point here is making sure that we maintain the strongest possible the most open the most transparent and the most engaging democratic process around the world. New Zealand prides itself on its democracy. We can maintain that pride only if we respect the right of New Zealanders to have a say. This bill strips that away. This Government has no respect for the rights of New Zealanders to have a say over their democracy. This is yet another attack which the Green Party will not support."I asked in the second reading if they were therefore going to withhold their vote on that same basis on this very strong principle which they held themselves up by in 2016. They did not; they are on record as voting for this bill. Let's see again tonight what position they take on such a strong principle that they held in 2016 or does the coalition Government slowly whittle away your principles and they'll be voting for this tonight? Again we will be supporting this bill and again I want to acknowledge the select committee who got us to this point. Thank you."