Kedgley Sue: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Kedgley Sue: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 24 July 2007. Volume:640;Page:10669. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 The Green Party strongly supports the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill and the extension of the term of the Mental Health Commission until 2015. Overall we have been very impressed by the Mental Health Commission and its functioning. We strongly support the idea of having an independent body that has a key role in monitoring the implementation of the national mental health strategy the so-called blueprint; that has a role in working to reduce the stigma associated with mental health; and that has a strong monitoring role generally. We think that the model of an independent Mental Health Commission is an excellent one and we strongly support its extension to other areas; we think it provides something of a role model. 
 Certainly there were submitters who expressed concerns about certain aspects of the commission’s work in particular the unspent blueprint money—basically the underspending on mental health in some district health boards—and also as the previous speaker has said there were some family members concerned that the commission did not sufficiently represent family members but rather advocated principally for people with mental illness. But overall there was strong support for the commission. This support was echoed very widely and I think will be found in this House because the commission does have an extremely important advocacy role for people with mental illness. Our success in dealing with mental illness in New Zealand would be undermined if we did not have the Mental Health Commission.  
As other speakers have said mental health is a huge problem in our community. Mental illness is the cause of a huge amount of suffering. It is a very painful issue it is draining our human resources and it is very traumatic for families with members who experience illness. The fact that one in five New Zealanders has mental illness is a shocking statistic and one would have to ask what is going wrong in New Zealand that causes so many of us to have mental health problems. It is all very well for National to say that the Government has thrown all this extra money at mental health but mental illness and suicide rates have not declined over the last year or whatever; the truth is that many of the underlying issues in our society produce mental illness including poverty powerlessness hopelessness the widening gap between rich and poor dysfunctional families abuse and poor nutrition. The factors that cause mental illness are very deep-seated and are exacerbated by in particular the growing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand and the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness that many in our community suffer from.  
Those sorts of underlying causes will not be resolved simply by throwing a bit of money at the problem. We will not find that in 6 months’ time mental illness in New Zealand has suddenly declined by 10 percent or whatever because the causes are often very long-term underlying issues. If someone is suffering from abuse for example it is not easy to suddenly resolve the mental health issues that result from that abuse. We need to focus on enabling people who have mental health issues to get the best possible assistance and support that they can. Clearly there is a lack of adequate counselling in New Zealand. One issue that we have concern about is that there is a tendency to look very much for what we might call psychiatric solutions—giving pills to people to manage their illness rather than being able to offer the underlying counselling that is needed and that can actually help individuals to deal with and in some cases recover from mental illness.  
One of the concerns expressed by submitters was that the monitoring role of the Mental Health Commission could be undermined by a provision that the commission would monitor at intervals agreed to by the Minister of the Health and the commission. Select committee members were assured that this was not the intention of those drafting this bill but we added in a new clause that said that the Mental Health Commission could report from time to time whenever it saw fit to do so. In our view that certainly gets round those concerns that were expressed and we look forward to the Mental Health Commission being able to report whenever it wishes on any matter relevant to mental illness.  
Like others the Green Party thinks the commission has done wonderful work in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness. The recent television advertising campaign has been an incredible success—it has won awards and so forth—and is having a significant effect on changing attitudes towards mental illness. This is yet another example of the success of the Mental Health Commission. The commission is being given certain additional functions—to act as an advocate not only for people with mental illness but for their families generally—and those additional functions should take care of some of the other concerns that were expressed by submitters. The commission is also being asked to facilitate collaboration and communication about mental health issues amongst stakeholders.  
So we think that the very valuable work of the Mental Health Commission will be strengthened by this bill. We are delighted that its independence will be preserved we are delighted that it will have its remit extended until 2015 and we are very pleased that it will have this independent monitoring role and can report to the Minister whenever it thinks there is a concern that needs to be addressed. We are pleased that the commission can undertake research on any matter relevant to mental illness and that it will be able to continue to advocate as it has done for the interests of people with mental health issues.  
The Green Party is very very pleased to support this bill. We are quite confident that the extension until 2015 will be supported by the House and that there will not be support for the National amendment to simply extend the commission’s term for a couple of years. That would be very unsatisfactory and would not be recognition of the incredibly valuable work that the Mental Health Commission carries out. Thank you.