King AnnetteHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): Can I begin by congratulating the member Chris Bishop who has promoted this bill—the third promoter of this bill—because it is not often that a member gets to have a bill supported by all members in the House and for it to go through all stages and become the law of the land. It is such a shame that we do not have more of this sort of an approach. So often there are very good members' bills on the Opposition side of the House but we struggle to get the same sort of cooperation because politics come in the way. But in the case of the Compensation for Live Organ Donors Bill which was taken over by Chris Bishop from Cam Calder and before that from Michael Woodhouse it is having its third reading today.I noted that the member was very lavish in his praise of his parliamentary colleagues but can I say to him that this bill would not have been improved if it had not been for the entire Health Committee. Unfortunately it was not just Mr Simpson and others who improved it. In fact it was improved by National Labour and the Greens. In its original version it was not a very good bill and I am sorry to say that but that is the case.Chris Bishop: So churlish.Hon ANNETTE KING: No I am not churlish; it is the truth. I sat on the committee I heard the evidence and the bill was not in a very good space. I think the member would have to admit that because what the select committee did do under the very good chairmanship of Simon O'Connor was improve this bill and make this bill work for New Zealanders. I now believe that we have a bill that is fit for purpose. It is a bill for live organ donors. I agree with Mr Bishop that those who donate live organs those who are living human beings who give up part of their body to help another person are heroes. They are selfless; they are there to give help to somebody—often people who are near and dear to them. You cannot be more selfless than that. Also you can be selfless in death when organs that are available on death can also be used.This bill deals with those who are living. What it has done is enable people to be able to give an organ and still have income assistance while they are recuperating and recovering from that surgery. That did not exist for them so for many people it was a financial burden to give up work to give up income to provide an organ to a loved one. They were going to be penalised financially. So we now enable them. We recommended the changes to provide for the cost neutrality to donors—instead of 80 percent of lost earnings based on the ACC compensation model we have enabled them to be able to get 100 percent of their earnings. This I think is a good move. It also moves it away from people having to go and beg to the Ministry of Social Development moving it to the Ministry of Health to ensure that there is no obstacle to them getting that financial assistance.So we have ended up I think and landed in a very good spot. There is one part of organ donation that still does need to be addressed—and I hope it will be addressed in the near future—and that is the issue of organ donation from people who have passed on. I want to acknowledge today the work that has been done for many many years by Andy Tookey from Christchurch. As a Minister of Health I dealt with Andy. He was relentless in raising this issue. I think that we have not finished this process until we address the issue of organs from people who are deceased. There is a huge number of organs available but very few New Zealanders who are prepared to donate—and for a number of reasons.You may find that a person themself has said they would like to donate on their death. They are willing and able to donate. They say: Please use my organs for the good of someone else." But at the time of death that person is no longer considered a person. They are now the property of their family and so often it is the family members who decide that they do not wish the organs of their loved one to be donated. I can understand that—at the time there is a lot of emotion. Your loved one has passed on and here is somebody saying: "By the way can we have their organs?".I know it is not done like that but you know what I mean. It is a very emotional time for people. So we do need to have a better way of going about this. If we could also get increased organ donation from deceased people we could considerably increase organ donations in New Zealand. One of the issues that has been raised as helping this is having an organ donation register. It would be a register of those who are prepared to donate. I believe we would probably have to change the law to ensure that the person's wishes are carried out—like in a will—after their death and cannot be overridden by a family.It is interesting that Mr Bishop said that this for him came about when he was out with the Minister of Health at a meeting in the Hutt Valley. I have to say to Mr Bishop that this really should have been a Government bill. This is a bill that is about health issues. It has not become one—the member has picked it up and got it to where it is and good on him. But the next part of it does require Government intervention and that is donation from deceased people. That does require a Government measure. I believe it does require a register and I noticed that when the Minister put out an announcement about this bill he said he did not support a register. In fact he said it before we even heard the submissions. He did not support a register. But unfortunately that was a change from the position he held when he was in Opposition. In Opposition he said: "The Ministry of Health has said there is no evidence of a register improving donor rates. Well we have heard that several jurisdictions around the world are already instituting this type of donor register. If it is good enough for the Canadians for places in America for the states in Australia then one would wonder why we are not doing this in New Zealand." This was said by the member opposite—the Minister of Health—when in Opposition. He was in favour of it then. He said—and I agree with him on all of this—that "The problem we have at the moment is that if we register on our driver's licence as an organ donor there is no absolute guarantee that someone will not overrule that wish once we have passed on." He said this: "The National Party position is that if one makes a decision about what happens to one's body after one dies then that should be absolutely binding and no one else should be able to overrule that decision." There are two issues: first the issue of a person's decision about what happens when they die and no one overruling it and second the register.So I say to the Government that I offer congratulations to Chris Bishop on getting live organ donation through and I hope we see a big increase in organ donation because we do feature low down in the world. But I would like us as a Parliament led by a Government to put in place measures to increase organ donation of organs from deceased people. That would finish the work that needs to be done in this area and there is a huge saving for New Zealanders—for taxpayers and others—if they can access organs to enable them to live fuller and healthier lives. We support this bill. It has ended up being a positive measure. It is a measure that I think the whole House supports because it is sensible and it needs to happen. We also commend the bill to the House."