Turei Metiria: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10851. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): The Green Party supported the appointment of the commissioners because we wanted to make sure that those responsible for the health services in the southern region were responsive to the community. It was clear the previous board was not. It was responsive to the desires of the Minister of Health and that led to a very large number of very serious problems for the southern community. We are now in the situation where it is possible for the communities of the south to have elected representatives on the Southern District Health Board who will represent them—genuinely represent them—and their concerns and we should be welcoming that opportunity. It is important that we have local democracy and that is why we are opposing this bill because this bill will take from the communities of the south their right to have local democracy and to have their representatives on the board.This is no reflection on the current commissioners. I have met with Cathy Grant and Richard Thomson. I have a great deal of respect for the work that they have been doing to this point.The benefit of the Green Party proposition that we keep elections for the district health board is that the communities of the south can have the best of both. This is a potential win-win for the communities of the south. I live in Dunedin. This is a community that I represent and work with. We can have elections for our representatives on the board who are responsive and accountable to us and we can have the expertise and the experience of the current commissioners who can be appointed to that board as well to help maintain the good work that has been done and to manage the transition from the commissioners to a fully elected district health board.This is a win-win proposition that the Greens are putting forward for the communities of the south and it is amazing to me that the National Government wants to remove from the table that win-win for the south. But maybe it is not such a surprise because of course we know that National at every point it has been able to has removed from local communities their right to local democracy. We have seen that happen repeatedly in Canterbury for example. There is no way that any community in this country can trust National when National says it is going to restore local democracy because at every point it has had the opportunity to do that it has chosen not to and this is yet another example.I want to echo the comment by Ria Bond actually that one of the reasons why people in the south deserve to have the chance to elect their representatives is that there are serious issues. Currently two issues are major issues in the south. One is the food—well you cannot really call it food. Let us just be—no it is not food. The slop that is provided by Compass Group under the ministerial direction that this contract continues—that is a major issue for all of the communities in the south. The people of the south want to have advocates for their position on the district health board and they deserve to.The second issue that is currently significant in the south is the mental health services and mental health funding cuts. We have seen the Stop the Cuts to Southern Mental Health organisation activists be very clear that they want to retain the best possible mental health services particularly in Dunedin and elsewhere. Those people too deserve to have their representatives on the district health board to advocate for their needs.This National Government is stripping from those communities—from the patients in the hospital and those with mental health issues and their families in Dunedin—the right to have their advocates on the district health board being accountable to them and arguing for their needs for no reason except that National wants to keep control and remove local democracy from the south. The Green Party opposes this legislation.