Moroney Sue: Official Information (Openness of District Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Moroney Sue: Official Information (Openness of District Health Boards New Zealand) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11191] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I ask Jonathan Coleman who has just resumed his seat where he was when the National Government did not even have enough openness and transparency in the health system to trust local communities to elect district health boards. There were no elected members no transparency and no democracy in the health system under National. That member stands up and preaches about openness and transparency. Well where was that member at that time? I think he just said he was working in the health system so he would well know that in the 1990s under National all decisions with regard to our public health-care system were taken in secret behind closed doors behind locked doors with no media allowed in no scrutiny no accountability and absolutely no transparency. That is the background that those new members of the National Party have to acknowledge about their history. They should take on board the history of the National Party. I say: “It’s yours. Own it!”. It is for members opposite to own their own history when it comes to openness and transparency or should I say more properly a lack of openness and transparency that has been promoted day in and day out decade in and decade out by the National Party. 
The new member for the National Party Jackie Blue has brought forward— 
Simon Power 
: New member? How long has this member been here? 
SUE MORONEY 
: Well if Jackie Blue wants to take responsibility for the lack of openness and transparency in the 1990s from the National Government then that is up to her. I am sure that Jackie Blue is interested in openness and transparency when it comes to members on the Auckland District Health Board and their disclosures or not about conflict of interest. I would like to have some consistency from members opposite when it comes to openness and transparency. I know that Jackie Blue will have some interesting observations on Dr Bierre and his lack of openness or transparency in his role on the Auckland board. 
To come back to this bill which we will be— 
Hon Lianne Dalziel 
: One law for all. 
SUE MORONEY 
: That is the National mantra and I am interested in seeing the—[ 
Interruption 
] 
I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at the member opposite. I think Simon Power has been here for some time. His reference was the nickname that the 10 and 11-year-old boys came up with when I was that age. 
Simon Power 
: What are you talking about? 
SUE MORONEY 
: Was it Tau Henare? One of them came up with what is 10 and 11-year-old schoolboy stuff quite frankly and I take offence. 
Simon Power 
: Speaking to the point of order. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Can you enlighten me as to what might have been said? 
Simon Power 
: I can absolutely enlighten you Mr Deputy Speaker. I said: “Let Lianne Dalziel take a call.” 
SUE MORONEY 
: Speaking to the point of order I say that is not the statement I was referring to. I think Tau Henare probably knows the statement I was referring to. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Mr Henare the member is saying she heard you say something. Do you acknowledge that? You are on the point of order. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: A member cannot raise a point of order then go down the line accusing people until he or she gets the right one. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: It is a fishing expedition. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Basically it is. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: All right. We do not need to take it any further. If you could continue please. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Thank you and next time I will get the culprit. I will work out exactly who the culprit is. 
I look forward to Jackie Blue’s “Openness of Auckland District Health Board Members’ Disclosures Bill” which she will be putting in the ballot no doubt as soon as this one has cleared the traps. And this bill will be clearing the traps rather quickly because as I understand it all parties will be voting against it. But there is a good reason why the parties are all voting against the second reading of this bill. It is not to do with cover-ups and no it is not to do with—[ 
Interruption 
] I say to Dr Coleman that I am sorry but there is no cover-up here. There is no cover-up to be seen. In fact we are voting against this bill because the problem has been resolved by action taken by the Government. National is the party that does not like legislative approaches to anything but here is Dr Jackie Blue from the National Party bringing legislation forward for this House to consider when it is not needed. All that was needed was regulation. I think the National Party needs to have a good discussion about where it stands. Is it for over-regulation? Is it for lots of legislation when we do not need it or is it not? That is where we have come to with this bill. This bill is unnecessary. Legislation was not needed to resolve this issue; in fact it has been done by regulatory means. 
Why would the Government have a cover-up over District Health Boards New Zealand anyway? We are enormously proud as a Government of the role of District Health Boards New Zealand because it talks about cooperation in the district health board sector and in our public health system. Guess what? This Government thinks it is a great idea that there is some collusion that there is collaboration rather than the competition that was driven up and that nearly brought our health system to its knees in the 1990s. It is about cooperation. It is about the sort of coordination we get from doing nationwide planning of the health system in a country the size of New Zealand and it is good news. 
It has also allowed us to do things that I know that the National Party does not agree with. I know that it will rip them apart if it ever got the chance. In a nanosecond these sorts of measures would be gone. But multi-employer collective agreements are another excellent example of nationwide coordination in the public health system. Yes they have meant substantial wage increases for nurses and I know that the National Party does not like that. It keeps going on about increased spending in health and about increases for nurses and multi-employer collective agreements which allow consistency right across the board being the sorts of things National would attack straight away. But they are exactly the type of thing that having an organisation such as District Health Boards New Zealand allows because yes it has been able to do negotiations right across the board it has been able to give advice and support to the district health boards and it has been able to support them to be able to cooperate with each other so that they can share resources and are not competing in that very costly market-driven mode we had in the 1990s. 
There is absolutely no reason why the Government would be secretive about what District Health Boards New Zealand is doing at all because in fact we are incredibly proud of the message about having a nationally consistent health system that actually does some planning. I know that members opposite come forward all the time in this House and say: “Gosh let’s have another vision. Yes let’s have another strategy.” Yes let us do that because that is exactly the type of thing that is making sure we have a plan. We have a plan for developing the workforce unlike in the 1990s when the National Government did not have a plan about anything in health or in any other industry for that matter because the market was going to sort it out. Well the market made a hash of it and the market particularly made a hash of it when it came to our health system. So District Health Boards New Zealand is a wonderful organisation in terms of planning and in terms of national coordination. It supports the very fine work that is done by health professionals and others in our public health system. 
I am pleased to say that for all the right reasons Labour will be voting against this bill. It is unnecessary. The legislation brought forward by a member of the National Party is unnecessary. It could have been done by regulation it has been done by regulation and that information is available for members. However I caution the member opposite who proposed the bill Dr Jackie Blue. She made a statement about people in the past having to use the Official Information Act to gather information from the 21 district health boards and now instead going to one entity and how much easier that would be. In fact District Health Boards New Zealand may not actually hold the information that one is seeking from the 21 district health boards so there will still be a need to use Official Information Act requests for the 21 district health boards but there will also now be the ability to get information from District Health Boards New Zealand.