Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koe. It's my pleasure to stand on behalf of New Zealand First and speak on the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill. It is my pleasure on behalf of my party to do so.I would just like to begin my contribution on this and acknowledge my colleague from Labour Louisa Wall for her work inside the Health Committee. Not being on that committee it was interesting to hear your kōrero this evening about the processes you went through on the select committee and just noting the amount of work you did on this bill and also the fact that the ministry has already been working on the enrolment of babies and getting that into a timely manner and also to help in that process of detecting any health issues that may come by having children and newborn babies enrolled in an early time frame. I also too note that the committee has asked for regular reports to come back from the ministry as we proceed into the future ensuring that we get as many babies enrolled as we can.Babies—they are amazing. All of those in the House who are parents know that when you have a brand new baby it's like the beginning of all things. It's the wonder and the hope and all those emotions and all that untapped potential all wrapped up inside that bundle of joy. That's a really beautiful space to be in—inside that baby bubble—and we know that the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern in fact in the last few weeks has experienced that and shared that with all of us here in Aotearoa New Zealand.Just looking at this bill the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill—what actually will the bill do? It will ensure that the newborns are enrolled with their general practice and a primary health organisation (PHO) before six weeks of age. Now that is coincidentally a very critical time in a baby's life. It also coincides with that first immunisation for those parents that do choose in fact to immunise their children. It kind of streamlines all of that process. That lead maternity caregiver—maybe it's the midwife—will consult with the family and have a discussion about what kind of GP they think their family should be part of and where their newborn baby should go and then they will send off that pre-enrolment form to connect with that general practice or primary health organisation. That GP organisation then has two weeks to ensure the enrolment takes place and if for some reason they aren't able to have that baby be part of their practice then they'll be required to assist that family in finding another general practice in which to enrol and that should really be somewhere close to the residence of where that newborn baby is.So that is literally the bill in a nutshell. New Zealand First supported the bill to select committee. However unfortunately now we will oppose the bill based on the findings from the select committee. This really is a credit to the democratic process and the input that we've had in the select committee through the key industry stakeholders.I'd just like to look at some of those submissions that came in and I note that yes there were a number of submissions in support of this bill. As someone—and I'll just read out a couple here now—who has been a new mum three times this person wanted to say that this is a really nice idea. However getting out of a house with a newborn [baby] can be very difficult and even harder if there are older siblings to take." That puts a lot of strain on the mother finding it a little bit of hard work to get out and particularly for some mums who end up being in hospital for an extended period of time if there are some complications with the birth of their baby or with the baby itself. Another submission said it was very sensible and very practical "When GPs first make contact with the parents that they make them aware that visits for children are free of charge". Now that's really important. Some people aren't aware that they can have free medical care for their babies and if there is a charge what that cost is. So those facts are before the family right from the get-go and that can allay a lot of fear for some of those people.There were other submissions which were not in support of this bill—they were against the bill. One here says that "This bill concerns me as there needs to be an option to make the informed decision not to [enrol with] a GP at all as one of our human rights is to make our own decisions around our health and the health of our children free of coercion. If we're forced to [enrol] our children with a General Practice our rights are in jeopardy." So we have a range of varying opinions. "According to the New Zealand Bill of Rights" this other submission says "point 11 states that Everyone has the right to refuse to undergo any medical treatment [and] enforcing enrolment to a PHO before 6 weeks of age infringes on the right of parents to choose how they care for their newborn's health. Especially when they are still vulnerable from just having given birth not long ago." They went on to say that this "stinks of nanny state".Also some submissions are against the fact that vaccinations are tied into the enrolment of newborns particularly around the six-week time frame when the first immunisations are due. So those that are against vaccination didn't like to have that put upon them. Another submission which I thought was interesting came from a rural GP obstetrician which went on to say that "Further imposition of poorly drafted legislation will just add to GP frustration and the on-going exodus [of GPs from rural areas]."So those are some of the submissions for and against on the bill. I'd just like to refer back to what the previous speaker had to say regarding measures that have already been put in place to improve newborn enrolment and the fact that more changes are under way. In 2012 the ministry implemented a preliminary enrolment policy to improve newborn enrolments. Now prior to this policy change fewer than half of the newborns were enrolled with a general practice by the time they were three months old and the NES data—that's the national enrolment system—from October to December in 2017 shows that 75 percent of babies were enrolled by that time. I'd also like to reiterate the point that we heard just previously that the select committee has resolved to monitor to the ministry's progress towards implementing these actions and achieving better newborn enrolment and the committee is also asking the ministry for updates on its actions with the rates of newborn enrolment in around 12 months' time.So really it's just a short contribution from me this evening as not being part of the Health Committee. I would like to actually make comment that the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill is well-intentioned and that I would like to extend my sympathy to Dr Parmjeet Parmar for having her member's bill to this stage. That is something to be proud of but really because she wasn't able—[Interruption] ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Order! Will the member take his seat please.JENNY MARCROFT: —in the last Parliament—to get the previous Minister of Health Jonathan Coleman to show any kind of leadership in the health sector it was unfortunate that she wasn't able to gather his support at that time. So just in conclusion this coalition Government has been clear that we will restore the shortfall that the previous Government left in health. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker."