Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I'll be rising on behalf of the National Party this afternoon to oppose the Government's Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. I want to set the scene of where New Zealand is at today with healthcare. Today in the New Zealand Herald the headline said Wellington Hospital: Woman claims she sat in urine-soaked clothes for six hours in Wellington ED"—"Capital and Coast DHB says emergency department patients can 'generally expect to be moved to a ward in a timely manner - but ED has been operating at full capacity in recent weeks.'" On Saturday we had in Radio New Zealand: "Health system hit hard by winter illness while 'stubborn' Covid-19 numbers persist … Last night Dunedin Hospital closed all its wards to visitors after patients and staff on several wards were exposed to Covid-19." The Dominion Post last Tuesday had a headline: "Hospital Emergency departments struggling as winter illnesses add to existing pressures"—"The demand for urgent medical attention is so high in some emergency departments they cannot physically fit all the sick people inside." Finally last week the New Zealand Herald reported: "Patient with typhoid fever slept in car due to lack of beds at Middlemore Hospital … He's warning the South Auckland hospital is 'imploding' and says he's terrified of what could happen if the usual respiratory viruses take hold over winter."That is the environment we are in. We are dealing with a pandemic and on top of that the winter viruses are starting to occur and are gridlocking our hospitals. And what do we have? A Labour Government with its vanity project of trying to reform the health system in the middle of a pandemic against all advice throwing billions of dollars into bureaucrats into consultants into looking at things that won't actually deliver better care on the ground tomorrow. Where are the priorities? Because this Government they'll call a big game; they'll say "Look you know we've been looking at this and we've listened and we've responded—oh let's centralise." That's all they've got. The Labour Party playbook is centralising. Whether it be the polytech mergers whether it be the Water Services Entities Bill that will be debated for the first reading on Thursday and now the health system restructure same old record. If there's an issue it's socialist central planning—you centralise it. Because of course their bureaucrats in Wellington know how to deliver good healthcare out in rural and regional New Zealand. Well that's what this Government thinks. That's why they're going to throw money—good money after bad—into bureaucrats and consultants. Nothing in this process of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill legislative process in Parliament over the last few months has given me confidence and I don't think it actually gives New Zealanders confidence as well. You look at the issue around mental health—you've got a Government telling us today they're trumpeting record announcements in health. But when you actually look at their track record they trumpeted $1.9 billion for mental health and then the first report from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission said despite the announcement of money for mental health no material improvements. So here we have mental health—$1.9 billion and no material improvements. Yet this Government says "Trust us. We're going to pump billions of dollars into an ideological reform."And they can quote Heather Simpson as much as they want with the health and disability review but of course the recommendation of the Heather Simpson report was to reduce 20 DHBs to eight to 12. Not take a wrecking ball to 20 DHBs in the middle of a pandemic and in winter. And here we have them saying "Trust us we're going to throw money at this. We've actually got a pretty poor record—KiwiBuild Auckland light rail the Auckland Harbour Bridge mental health the list goes on." Because when they say "Look we've been travelling the country and the health workforce is asking us for change" I disagree. Because when I talk to the health workforce what they tell me about the Government's reforms is that they're actually preoccupied quite rightly responding to a pandemic. So they are preoccupied. They've actually accepted change—they know no matter what they can't change this; it's coming in like a steam roller so they've just put their hands up and accepted it. But what the most concerning thing about this legislation is—and talk to people on the Pae Ora Legislation Committee talk to submitters talk to the health workforce—there's actually no detail in the bill. There's no detail. I mean for example "locality planning"—no one actually knows what it means. And that's the problem. That's why there is the apathy for these reforms. No one actually knows what's going on. Then we had in the committee of the whole House stage after the Government refused to put in a rural health strategy—they denied it to all the submitters who requested it. They went out into the media—the health Minister Andrew Little—and said "No it won't be a priority group for us." Then in the committee of the whole House stage—because the polls are starting to go south and their rural and regional MPs are getting the pinch from three waters and health reforms—they do a flip-flop. The audacity of it after rural New Zealanders had to go through the heartbreak of thinking they hadn't been listened to. But of course it gets worse because there is a group that they should have listened to in this bill and they haven't. The mental health stakeholders turned up to the select committee and made it very clear what they thought about this bill. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission said mental health was invisible. How can we end up today with a Government who promises to transform the mental health system but the peak stakeholder group says mental health is invisible in this bill and the Government refuses to do anything? The Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand said the lack of mental health and the reference to it in this bill is symptomatic of this Government's lack of ownership and leadership in mental health. Because of course when the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission came out with its damning report not only did it say it didn't find any material improvements it actually said there was a lack of leadership in this Government. It actually said there was no clear well-managed plan to execute change. So for a Government who claims to want to transform the mental health system they bring in a once-in-a-generation reform of the health restructure and mental health is invisible in the bill. And they won't put in a mental health strategy yet what they told us—Andrew Little told us today—the first principle of their bill is equity. OK fair enough. What about the equity with people with mental health issues? People with mental health issues in New Zealand have a shorter life expectancy of 20 years in New Zealand. Yet this Government couldn't even bring themselves to put in a mental health and wellbeing strategy in the bill. Listening? No. This is all about ideological reforms in the middle of a pandemic. Dr Shane Reti: Wellington knows best!MATT DOOCEY: Exactly. Wellington knows best the bureaucrats know best! They're taking the local out of local people's views. And I take great heart that in 14 months we will have a health Minister who actually knows about health: Dr Shane Reti. And he made it very clear today that when National is back in Government we will bring back local people's views into their health system. Because time and time again this Government talks a big game they say they're listening but then they bring out a pre-prepared solution: centralising. Centralising because they think Wellington knows best but we know it doesn't."