Roy Heather: Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Roy Heather: Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures)  Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:625;Page:19763] 
HEATHER ROY (ACT) 
: 
 ACT New Zealand will oppose the first reading of the Medicines (Specified Biotechnical Procedures) Amendment Bill. I would like to support the comments made by the two National Party speakers. The previous speech by the Labour member was extraordinary. Supposedly based on science she said that this Government is not prepared to risk the citizens of this country. Let us get real about this. The reason this bill has come before us now under urgency is that the Government is kicking for touch. An election is coming up and the Government wants to play it safe. If we just read the explanatory note of the bill we see that the Government is very clear about what it wants to do. The explanatory note states: “It is proposed in the long term that xenotransplantation be covered by new human tissue legislation and therapeutic products legislation.” To allow time for that legislation to be drawn up the Government wants to extend the moratorium. Let us get real here: this bill does not address the real issue. Extending the moratorium just kicks for touch and avoids a confrontational issue—something people feel very strongly about on both sides of the fence. It is just about political expediency: about not offending anybody in election year and about putting off dealing with the real problem until a much later date. 
The National Party members both spoke with a great deal of authority—particularly Dr Hutchison—and with a great deal of passion about the problems experienced by many people. 
Hon Annette King 
: I would be quite happy to go back to being a dental nurse. 
HEATHER ROY 
: The Minister of Health Annette King who is sitting over here has interrupted and interjected all the way through this debate but we know the value she puts on lives. It was not acceptable for a single person to die while on the waiting lists when she was the Opposition spokesperson on health but now suddenly it is perfectly acceptable to have several die. No longer do we have to worry about whether people on waiting lists may die—no. But we are certainly not prepared to help to save the lives of people who have no other option but to consider xenotransplantation in order to cure their ailments. 
In this country we have rigorous regulatory regimes. We should be encouraging—[ 
Interruption 
] There is nothing wrong with physiotherapy as a profession and I would suggest that a qualification in physiotherapy may actually be a superior qualification to that of a dental nurse—but let us not go there. I have actually come to the House to debate xenotransplantation because I think that the issue is very important. The Minister of Health may want to laugh it off and think she is doing a good job by extending a moratorium. In fact she is not. The extension is about political expediency as I said. She just does not want to offend anybody in election year. She is worried about the people in Rongotai who may or may not vote for her. As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted we have rigorous regulatory regimes in this country to deal with research and we should have some faith and put some trust in the Bioethics Council and in the people who are responsible for making the decisions about those matters. Those people are experts unlike the Minister of Health and unlike myself. I am unwilling to stand up here and say that we should not do this research because it is the wrong thing to do. I think we should put some trust and some faith in the scientists of this country—the very well-qualified scientists like Moana Mackey who has decided for whatever reason to change careers. We should put some faith in the people who are experts and let them do the deciding not the 120 members of Parliament who have absolutely no knowledge—except for Moana Mackey of course—about xenotransplantation. 
We may be worried about retroviruses and the member from Labour quite rightly raised that matter. But I ask whether we worry about tourists coming into this country and bringing retroviruses with them. Are we worried about the pandemics that may arise? Are we so worried about tourists bringing retroviruses in that we screen tourists? No we do not. Are we so worried about immigrants coming into this country spreading retroviruses and perhaps as Moana Mackey said causing a pandemic that we bother to screen them at the border? No we do not. So why are we so worried— 
Peter Brown 
: We would. 
HEATHER ROY 
: New Zealand First is worried. I am pleased to hear its members are worried about something. No we do not worry about tourists or about immigrants so why are we worried when we have to jump through hoops in order to do research in this country about xenotransplantation and the spread of retroviruses? We should undertake absolutely rigorous watertight risk analysis before we proceed with that research and we should put some trust and some faith in the experts. 
Many members will remember the fiasco about the environment surrounding the issue of transgenic cows. It took 2 years of jumping through hoops getting approval and doing the right things—and it was $500000 later—before anything could happen. That sent a very pertinent signal to the scientific world with regard to genomic research in New Zealand. It was a very powerful signal that said: “Don’t bother coming to do any research here. You guys you scientists whom we have trained we will train you for export just as we are doing with our doctors our nurses and our health professionals. We are training you here in this country and giving you a very good training and we want you to go overseas”— 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: The member will please not refer to the Speaker. 
HEATHER ROY 
: We want scientists to go overseas and do their work there because we do not want to do any of that very nasty biotechnology work here in New Zealand. So that is exactly what has happened of course. Our scientists our best and our brightest our very well-qualified scientists particularly in biotechnology have headed off overseas. And who can blame them? There is nothing for them here in New Zealand. So New Zealand scientists who are known for their innovation and expertise will no longer be doing anything here in New Zealand; they are being sent offshore to do their research there. That is a huge loss not only to the scientific community here in New Zealand but to New Zealanders and to those patients who made informed decisions about whether they should have some research done on themselves. I have met one of the people who had some xenotransplantation research done and she is living a very productive happy and healthy life as a result of xenotransplantation. But that will no longer be the situation. Nobody else will have the opportunity to have that done here because our scientists have been sent off. The moratorium is to be extended and that is another lost opportunity for the people of New Zealand for the scientists of New Zealand and for the scientific reputation of New Zealand which in the past has been a very good one. 
ACT opposes this bill. We think we should deal with the real issue. Let us not pretend that the legislation is not ready to be drawn up. Let us not deny that the moratorium is being extended only because there is an election coming and the Minister of Health is worried about her votes. Let us not pretend that we are not ready to address the real issues. People in New Zealand are ready to address them and it is only the arrogance of their Government that suggests otherwise. Let us not kick for touch; let us have the real debate and the real discussion. Let us see that legislation— 
Hon Parekura Horomia 
: Ha ha! 
HEATHER ROY 
: I do not think that this is a joking matter as the Government does. Let us discuss the real issues for once instead of just kicking for touch yet again. I do not want to see our scientists go offshore; I want to see them come back to New Zealand. But what is here for them to come back to? Very little! We have systems in place to deal with these things and we should deal with the risk analysis. People are quite right to be concerned about retroviruses. But we have the expertise here to address that issue and the research should be allowed to happen. ACT New Zealand says we should address the real issues and deal with them here and now not put them off yet again. How many more times does that have to happen? Let us treat our scientists our well-trained scientists with the respect they deserve. Let us deal with this issue right now and not put it off. ACT will oppose this bill for that very reason.