Kuriger BarbaraBARBARA KURIGER (National—Taranaki - King Country): It is a pleasure to speak this afternoon and I also want as others have done to acknowledge Mrs King. Mrs King spent a lot of time on our Health Committee this Parliament and it was good for her to come back in a couple of weeks ago and good to have her in the room again. So I want to acknowledge what she has brought to it.We have talked a lot today around—this is really around the appropriations and the money. Dr Coleman our Minister mentioned before—$888 million extra that is being invested into health in 2017 and 2018. It is actually the biggest increase in 11 years. We heard a member over there talking before about the Southern District Health Board. It is actually going to get another $31 million. I want to mention two health boards that are connected with my own electorate. The Taranaki District Health Board will be getting another $12 million and the Waikato District Health Board will be getting another $42 million. So the health budget is increasing.One of the things that have grabbed a lot of attention this afternoon is around mental health. There is an extra $224 million for mental health. And look no one is proud of the suicide rate—one suicide is too many. It really is one of those issues that we have got to grapple with but we are not going to grapple with it by you know blasting people with it. We have got to sit down and listen. Only a matter of a couple of days ago this week I saw a young constituent of mine who was really keen to talk to Dr Coleman about his experience. So we sat down—and it is about listening and it is about working these things out.I can tell you that the money that has gone in—not only last year and the year before but the promised money which totals up to $1.6 million for rural mental health which has been put into the Fieldays—is being put into actually helping people out in the community who can understand what to do when somebody is stressed.We talk a lot about what goes on in the hospital but actually it is about having our community people prepared. What was really cool this year was to see the Fieldays Health Hub going on and everyone being able to visit that health hub. Farmers were coming in for their wellness check. It was not only about prostate cancer breast cancer blood checks diabetes checks blood pressure checks—which are all really really important—but the other part of it was the wellness check: How are you feeling?" "What are you up to?" and having people in there who can recognise that.I think we have to recognise that a lot of people in our community have not historically been equipped to even pick it up so to get all of those people out there who can recognise—I have to say it has made a huge difference to what has gone on in our rural communities over the dairy downturn.While we are talking about appropriations I just want to put a call out to dairy farmers today because we have had a very good announcement about forecast payout which now has a seven in front of it instead of a three. But having said that mental health is not all about money—people have lives they have marriage breakups and they have things that go wrong. It is good to have those out in the community who can front-line it. So really it is about listening not about thinking that we know all the answers around it. We have got to find out from people what is concerning them.I was really pleased to be on the Health Committee when we went through the process of doing the legislation around the settlement for the care workers. I cannot think of a better bunch of people to be paid out this extra money because as the Minister mentioned before they really do work that is extremely important in our community. They are looking after our most vulnerable our most disabled. It means our elderly people can stay in their homes for much longer than they ever used to.I just wanted to touch on one more subject and that is around double-crewing for ambulances which is accounted for here as well. I think that is pretty important everywhere but when you work in a very remote area and you have people in ambulances by themselves not only is it a danger in case they come across one of those patients who does not particularly want their services and gets a bit aggressive but also someone often has to drive while the other person takes care of the patient. So I think that is a really really good move. It is going to add to the safety of the drivers and the patients. It has been a pleasure to take a call this afternoon thank you."