Stewart Barbara: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Stewart Barbara: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:638;Page:8919] 
11.  
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
 to the  
Minister for Disability Issues 
: Has she received any reports regarding an incident involving an assault on an intellectually disabled former Kimberley resident and will she restate her assurance to families of former Kimberley residents that they will receive the same if not better care in the community than they did at Kimberley? 
Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health) 
on behalf of the 
 Minister for Disability Issues 
: Yes I have. This has been described as an appalling cowardly act and is currently under police investigation after NZCare contacted the police that same day. Yes I am confident that care in the community in general is as good as or better than care in Kimberley. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Has the Minister read the reported comments of a mother of a former Kimberley resident that adequate systems were not in place when her daughter was moved into a community house last year and that “There have been a lot of incidents that would not have happened if the patients had remained at Kimberley.”; if so what is the Minister’s response to those comments? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Yes I have read the reported comments on the front page of Tuesday’s  
Dominion Post 
 and wish to advise the House that in respect of that case the report is in part simply factually wrong—that is to say the adequate systems which were allegedly not in place refer to the availability of registered nurses. A registered nurse was in place from the outset of the establishment of that particular home. 
Darren Hughes 
: Despite the alleged disgraceful incident under discussion have successive Governments pursued deinstitutionalisation and in general does the Minister think the policy has worked? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: The member is exactly right; deinstitutionalisation has been the policy of many successive Governments. It was—for indeed we do not have it any more—about ensuring that people with disabilities are living in the community and doing the day-to-day things such as most of us take for granted. This is a key aim of the disability strategy. As to whether it has worked I would say that I have yet to meet any New Zealander who used to live in an institution who wants to go back. They simply do not want to go back. 
Barbara Stewart 
: What action is planned if research by the Donald Beasley Institute establishes that the outcomes for former Kimberley patients are worse in the community than they were at Kimberley? 
Hon PETE HODGSON 
: Very considerable action because it would be the first time that that had happened. I repeat: I have yet to meet a person who has been in an institution who wants to go back. Sometimes I have met family members who on behalf of a client or a patient want them to go back but I have never met a patient who wants to return. The closure of the Kimberley institution is the last project of its kind in our history. It was the most complex it was the most expensive and it remains the most closely monitored which is why we have the Donald Beasley Institute an independent outfit based in Dunedin keeping an eye on us. We are determined to get this right.