Kedgley Sue: Official Information (Openness of District  Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Kedgley Sue: Official Information (Openness of District  Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:633;Page:5266] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party is very pleased to support the Official Information (Openness of District Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill. We have been concerned that various aspects of the health system have been essentially beyond scrutiny and transparency. We welcome this bill as taking us one step further towards greater openness scrutiny and transparency within the health system. 
It seems odd to the Green Party that a body that effectively is the monitoring board for all of the 21 district health boards in New Zealand should be beyond the Official Information Act. It has no statutory basis and therefore is not open to any public scrutiny. This seems odd to us but it is not only odd; it is also deeply frustrating for those of us who want to obtain information about what is happening within the health system. It is frustrating to be told: “Sorry this is beyond the Official Information Act. We can’t provide you with any of that information.” It will be interesting to learn why it was set up as an incorporated society and therefore not subject to the Official Information Act. 
It is not only District Health Boards New Zealand that is beyond the Official Information Act. The bill does not cover only District Health Boards New Zealand; it covers any entity representing district health boards. We would like a number of other organisations to be investigated to see whether they too should be subject to the provisions of the Official Information Act. It seems to us there are various anomalies in the health system. For example a blood bank up in Auckland somewhere—I do not know where—holds all of the bloods samples used for the Guthrie test. So it holds literally millions and millions of samples of blood DNA. These are all held indefinitely; they are not disposed of as in other places. So there is a huge collection. Yet that body is not statutory and is beyond the Official Information Act. It is something that we would like to look at in the context of this bill. 
The reason that District Health Boards New Zealand is beyond the Official Information Act is because it is an incorporated society. Another proposed and very significant entity that the Government is hoping to set up in the near future—we hope it will never have the political support to do so but I know that it is attempting to do so—is the Trans-Tasman therapeutic goods agency. That too is being set up as an incorporated society so I imagine we would have the same problems in trying to obtain official information about it. I have been trying for 4 years to get official information from the interim ministerial council that has been set up to develop the legislation and set up this complex Trans-Tasman therapeutic goods agency. All of my Official Information Act requests have been withheld. Even the Health Committee has been told that we cannot get various pieces of information because the Official Information Act does not apply. It is a very frustrating experience to be constantly denied information because something is beyond the Official Information Act. 
So we strongly support the principle of openness transparency and accountability within the health system. We think this bill is a very positive step forward. We strongly support it and look forward to examining it in the select committee and considering whether other entities within the health system that at the moment are not subject to the Official Information Act should be and should have more openness and transparency.