Parmar ParmjeetNEWBORN ENROLMENT WITH GENERAL PRACTICE BILLSecond ReadingDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): I move That the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill be now read a second time.Mr Assistant Speaker thank you for this opportunity. I'm taking this call with mixed feelings. I'm saying mixed feelings because I'm happy and I'm also sad. I'm happy because this is my member's bill—because this reflects my passion to do more for newborns and new mums. And I'm sad because this Government this Labour-led Government has decided not to support my member's bill which is to enrol newborns with a general practitioner before they are six weeks old.I ask: what's wrong with enrolling newborns with a general practitioner of the family's choice before they are six weeks old? Nothing—nothing. I ask: what's wrong with denying the ability of general practitioners to not enrol the newborns because they don't know the family or there is debt owed by the family to the practice? Yes that ability should be stopped and there is nothing wrong with that.I ask: what's wrong with giving the ability to general practitioners to be able to deny a pre-enrolment request received on behalf of a newborn if the general practice is running at full capacity or if there is another good reason? Yes general practitioners should be able to deny a pre-enrolment request if they are running at full capacity or there is another good reason. There's nothing wrong with that. What is wrong with having a preventative approach towards the well-being of newborns? Nothing. There is nothing wrong so I ask: what is wrong with this Government—that this Government is not supporting my bill which is to enrol newborns with a general practice before they are six weeks old? This bill exposes the real side of this Government and that is that this Government is big on talk. When it comes to talking about children talking about newborns their talk is really big. But when it comes to action there is no action and that is what this bill exposes.The Prime Minister's Jacinda Ardern's flagship policy her bill the Child Poverty Reduction Bill—I have read submissions online for that bill and I have seen that people are saying that well-being factors should be included in that bill to deliver the full outcome that she wants to deliver. And my bill is exactly about that. So my bill is about the well-being of newborns and this Government is not supporting my bill.I want to thank all submitters—those who took time to write to the Health Committee during the submission process and those who appeared before the select committee for oral submissions as well. We saw that most of the submitters agreed with the intent of the bill. We saw nearly half of the submitters actually supported the bill and some submitters came up with some suggestions as well to improve this bill.And one common suggestion that came through from submitters was that this process should actually start from the gestation—from the pregnancy phase. And they wanted to make sure that this is actually happening before newborns are six weeks old and that's why they were suggesting that we should start this process from the pregnancy phase.And what I saw during the select committee process was that the Ministry of Health came with their advice at the start. After the hearing of evidence finished the Ministry of Health came back with exactly what they had advised at the start—to recommend. And I had to push back. I had to push back because it is not acceptable to keep the status quo because this bill is about moving beyond the status quo. It is about ensuring that newborns are enrolled before they are six weeks and that is not happening at the adequate rate that we would like it to.So after a big pushback the Ministry of Health came back with a watered-down approach a completely watered-down approach under the watch of the health Minister Dr David Clark. So the approach is that they will have two performance measures in the district health board accountability framework. The first is to see that 55 percent—I repeat yes 55 percent—of newborns are enrolled with general practitioners before they are six weeks old. We know where most of the births are happening. We know that most of the births are happening in some form of lead maternity facility. So why can't we see more newborns be enrolled before they are six weeks old? It will need some resources—yes like every other legislation this legislation will need some resources as well. We need to streamline our IT process so that our lead maternity care providers are connected to general practitioners so that newborns are enrolled and we can measure the enrolment rate in real time.So 55 percent of newborns enrolled before they are six weeks old and this is the measure that the Minister is happy to accept. And this is the measure that Government members voted for—55 percent. We are in a developed country and we are talking about enrolling 55 percent of newborns before they are six weeks old with general practitioners. And the second performance measure that was recommended by the Ministry of Health under the watch of this Minister Dr David Clark is 85 percent of newborns to be enrolled before they are three months old. That could be already happening. And if it's not already happening that is another reason why we need a legislative framework to see that newborns are enrolled in time.My bill is in line with the recommendation to the Health Committee in 2013 which was made upon the inquiry into improving child health outcomes work on findings of the inquiry into improving rates of childhood immunisation in 2011. So two reports—2013 and 2011. And this is also in line with the policy that was put in place in 2012 to enrol newborns with general practitioners—this is through the National Immunisation Register notification.Ministry of Health accepted there are delays because of the time it takes for the request to go through the National Immunisation Register and also because general practitioners can just deactivate that request. They don't have to accept or decline. So yes this is something that we need to fix but this Minister doesn't care about fixing this.All the three parties in Government supported my bill in the first reading. That was in the last term. Yes they all supported my bill in the first reading in the last term and I know why: because they thought yes this bill will require some resources and they didn't have any hope of being in Government. They thought National is going to be back in Government so the resources will be put in place by the National Government. So now they are in Government and all of a sudden they have realised that Oh actually we will have to put some resources to streamline the IT system in our health system to ensure that lead maternity carers are able to connect with general practitioners in time for this to happen in a timely manner that this bill requires." And all of a sudden because they realised it will need resources they have decided not to support my bill.And this was the exact line which I got from the Minister Dr David Clark when I accidentally bumped into him in Copperfield's cafe and I asked him about my bill. He said "Oh it will need resources." And I said "Yes just like every other legislation this legislation will also need resources." And then he said that "Oh we might have a better way of doing this." and the better way is to enrol 55 percent of newborns before they are six weeks old? It is embarrassing. I don't accept this to be an acceptable way of going forward.So this is what this Government is about. This is the ambition they have for newborns. Well why would they care about newborns? They can't vote. All they care about is those who can vote because the tertiary Fees-free policy is about enticing voters. That is the age group that votes. Newborns can't vote so why would this Government care to look after newborns? Why would they care about newborns and new mums getting access to several health checks and social services through Well Child? There are 12 very important points of contact for health checks of babies before they start school. Also mums can get several connections which are helpful to new mums as well through the enrolment of a newborn with a general practitioner. But what I'm seeing is that this Government this Minister Dr David Clark is clearly depriving newborns from having access to health services and having access to so many free social services that are available depriving so many new mums from having access to so many social services that are available for free.It's unacceptable for this Government to come up and give any excuse for not supporting my bill. There is no excuse to not support my bill except that they have used all the money they had for their spending policies that were to attract votes and newborns cannot vote. But on this side I'll keep fighting for newborns and new mums. Thank you."