Little Andrew; Mallard TrevorSELECT COMMITTEESPae Ora Legislation Committee—EstablishmentHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health) on behalf of the Leader of the House: I move That the House establish a committee to be called the Pae Ora Legislation Committee to consider and report on the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill and any associated business that may be referred to it; that the committee consist of eleven members to be nominated by parties to the Speaker as follows: New Zealand Labour six New Zealand National two the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand one ACT New Zealand one and Te Paati Māori one; and that the committee have the authority to meet at any time while the House is sitting except during oral questions during any evening on a day on which there has been a sitting of the House on a Friday in a week in which there has been a sitting of the House and outside the Wellington region during a sitting of the House despite Standing Orders 193 195 and 196.The reason we are seeking to have a stand-alone committee or a special committee to consider this legislation is because it does two very important things. The first is of course it restructures the decision-making structure for our health system a health system that has struggled to really deliver the needs for New Zealand for many years. It will be very health focused in that respect and we expect a lot of people with an interest in the health system—which frankly is all of us but a lot of people actively involved but otherwise connected to the health system—will want to have their say on those things about the health system and what might change about it.But here's the second thing that it does too: it makes some very important innovations one of which is the legislation itself provides for the way the Crown will meet its Treaty obligations in a way that has not been provided for in any other piece of legislation. So it sets out a set of principles that are drawn from the Waitangi Tribunal principles that were a part of the interim report on the Wai 2575 inquiry into the health system. It also establishes the Māori Health Authority an independent statutory body to provide leadership and stewardship for the health of our Māori people as part of the expression of that Treaty partnership and the Crown's obligations to Māori under the Treaty. As part of that it also gives recognition to iwi Māori partnership boards which are bodies that are in existence but have not been recognised in statute and really have not been well defined up until now. And although the legislation doesn't add a great deal to prescription as I will foreshadow actually it will be the role of the Māori Health Authority—in its early stages the interim body—to work with the existing iwi Māori partnership boards to put some meat on a lot of bones that are there and to give some texture and depth to what they do.So the reason for a special committee is to make sure that we have a committee equipped to take those two very important and I think very dominant strands from the community as they and this House consider this piece of legislation. And so it will be the intention of the House passing this motion to draw from the existing membership of the Health Committee and also the existing membership of the Māori Affairs Committee to make up the committee that will consider this very important piece of legislation. So on that basis I commend this motion to the House.SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.