Heatley Phil: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Heatley Phil: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:886] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 I would like to draw the attention of the Committee to obviously Part 1 “Preliminary provisions”—the part we are debating—and in particular to clause 3 the purpose clause. I point out something that I think will be of interest to members—that originally clause 3 as it was presented to the Primary Production Committee stated that the purpose was to “establish a registration system for veterinarians:”. The purpose was also to “establish a certification system” for veterinarians to “establish a complaints and disciplinary process for veterinarians:” to “establish medical and competence assessment processes for veterinarians:” and to “continue the Veterinary Council of New Zealand”. 
But we had to change that. The first job of the select committee was to change the purpose of that legislation. The purpose of this Parliament is not to establish certification systems complaints and disciplinary processes veterinary councils or any manner of committees; the purpose of this Act is to protect the public interest. All those other things—establishing a certification system establishing a complaints and disciplinary process and establishing medical and competence assessment processes—are means to an end. The end itself as under the new unanimous clause is to protect the public interest. That is why our attitude on this side of the Chamber is different because we know that committees and processes are simply means to an end as opposed to the attitude of those on that side of the Chamber who believe that committees processes and endless meetings are ends in themselves. 
In fact we are here to protect the public interest so I will read the new purpose clause for the benefit of the Committee and the Minister in the chair the Hon Jim Anderton: “The purpose of this Act is to protect the public interest by aiming to ensure that veterinarians are competent to practise;”. That is what this bill is all about. It just sets up the processes committees registration systems and disciplinary procedures to make sure that vets in this country who service farmers and families with small animals are competent to practise. I emphasise that we are not setting up committees councils and disciplinary procedures to give Labour Party members jobs on boards credit card expenses and flights to Wellington once a month—that is not why we are setting up those committees—the only reason we are setting them up is to ensure that veterinarians are competent to practise. 
I underline that to members of the Committee because it is very important. We had to throw away and push off the table all those provisions when we received this bill at the select committee. We had to start again and say that the end result is competent veterinarians which is in the public interest. Whereas the Labour Government of course drafted a bill that just sets up committees laws regulations and all sorts of loopholes for everyone else in this country to jump through. 
I move on to clause 4 “Interpretation”. I will be asking for a second 5-minute speech on this because there is something I do want to talk about—the issue of the certificate of registration. Members will recall that I talked before about temporary registration for those veterinarians coming from overseas and wanting to practise in New Zealand for a short time and about the desire of New Zealand to harness their skills for an extended time—not for the 3 months in the current Act plus 3 months for good behaviour but for 12 months as in the original bill. If we could just have South African veterinarians who were enthusiastic come to New Zealand for 12 months! If we could just attract them here for 12 months perhaps they would stay a further 12 months and perhaps they would look for residency and then citizenship so that they could contribute to our country. That was the thought that went through our minds so we changed those clauses which we will talk about in the debate on Part 2. 
Members will notice that in Part 1 of the original bill there was no definition of “certification of registration” but the select committee has put that in there because the issue around the certification of registration is very very important. Why? Because there are two types of registration. The first is the limited registration that people coming from overseas whom we want to attract to this country will undergo for a time. Originally limited registration applied for 3 months plus another 3 months but the Minister proposed to change that to 12 months plus 12 months. The select committee removed the time frames altogether.  
Then there is the provisional registration definition. Provisional registration is different from limited registration in that it applies to New Zealanders who leave university and want to apply to be registered. If that is the first time those people have wanted to be registered and they are not visitors from overseas they will get a provisional registration. 
 I ask the Minister why he did not actually state in the definitions that limited registration was for those people who were coming to New Zealand temporarily and that provisional registration was for New Zealanders who wanted to be registered for the first time. That would have been so much easier. I see the scales coming off the eyes of members of this Committee and the sudden penny-drop all over the faces of my colleagues who have suddenly realised what the Minister meant. Phil Heatley has a hole in one he has nailed it! What I am trying to say is that limited registration is for those foreign people coming to New Zealand who want to practise for a short time—and hopefully continue to practise—whereas provisional registration is for those young Kiwis who have studied here and who are being registered for the first time. I would have thought that perhaps we could have had that distinction set out in the clauses which would have made it much easier. 
I would like to raise something for members who have been looking at the commentary on the bill. I notice that when the commentary deals with the registration issue it refers to temporary registration. I think in retrospect that was actually an error on the select committee’s part when it drafted the commentary because within the new legislation there is no reference at all to temporary registration. Limited registration is the proper term; temporary registration is not mentioned in the context of the bill. 
I think members will become confused when they realise that there is limited registration by statute and provisional registration by statute but no temporary registration. Temporary registration is mentioned in the commentary. Everyone is searching for it amongst the clauses in the legislation but they cannot find it. They are panicking; they are running for the officials. Well I can tell members now to calm down sit down and take a deep breath because we made an error. We have referred to temporary registration but there is no such thing. We should not have taken Clayton Cosgrove’s advice during that 5 minutes when he woke up in the select committee and said that we should call it “temporary registration” because people would understand what it meant. We should not have taken his advice but we did out of sympathy. I regret doing that. We should have just continued with the term “limited registration” which we actually use within the clauses of the bill and we would not have the confusion we see in the Committee today. I am glad I have been able to put members right on that particular issue. 
I also point out the definitions around the term “veterinarian”. People might think that the definition of “veterinarian” in a veterinarians bill is not significant but I would argue it is. I think the definition of “veterinarian” in a veterinarians bill is very significant indeed. Members can see that we had to strike out the original definition inserted by Jim Anderton of what a veterinarian was and redefine that as well.