Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Tēnā koe and thank you very much Madam Chair. I'd just like to begin my contribution this afternoon following on from other members to congratulate you on your new role and very much looking forward to seeing you in the Chair very often indeed. So thank you for your contribution here in the House.I'd like to speak on behalf of New Zealand First on this the committee stage of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Waikato DHB) Elections Bill. It's a very unusual thing to have an entire district health board (DHB) shown the door which is what happened earlier this year so just acknowledging that there was a long run of administrative problems and of course that disastrous tenure by the head now disgraced. There has been much media coverage. Much of the mana of the Waikato District Health Board has been trampled and so for all of those people who work inside the health sector in the Waikato region really I would like to begin by acknowledging the fabulous work that those on the ground do. I think it's worthy to note their contribution to our health and wellbeing under a cloud that has been cast over them. I do have some questions for the Minister and I'd like to start off with firstly the new commissioner that has been put in place Dr Karen Poutasi. She has a fantastic pedigree is definitely a top public servant and has a significant background in health administration. She has said that she will be attempting to cut the deficit that the DHB has been running and also at the same time will be improving services. So my question to the Minister is: what level of confidence does he have that this appointment of Dr Poutasi will mean that the DHB will live within its means but at the same time will be able to improve services for the people of the Waikato? Basically because of all that bad publicity that the board had they did have trouble in finding the new CEO as has been mentioned already and I'd like to acknowledge the DHB's new chief executive Kevin Snee saying he was actually attracted to the chance to address the inequities in health while working with public organisations. So to the Minister: does he share the confidence that this is the right chief executive? If he could make further comment on that I would like to hear that too. You know it would be wrong of us just to think that the Waikato DHB is a dysfunctional unit. One thing that we do regularly hear about is what the focus of our DHBs should be. Should it just be a fiscal focus or is it actually about the people—is it the people that need to come for their healthcare is it the people who need surgery and is it the people who have an emergency situation that needs to come and be attended to? So are we just looking at this through a fiscal lens? What can the Minister tell us in terms of the outcomes for the people through this entire process? My final question is around democracy. I'd just like to make note of my colleague the Hon Ron Mark who spoke at the second reading about concerns that were raised. During the select committee process there was a concern and we did have three submissions about whether this removed a democratic process so I'd just like to hear the Minister's comments on that. So really those are just a couple of questions to the Minister and I'm hoping too that when we do have this new board in place in 2022 the changes will have been made the ship will be turning around and the focus will be on providing services to the Waikato region that we can all be proud of. Thank you.