Grigg NicolaNICOLA GRIGG (National—Selwyn): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise in support of the Accident Compensation (Maternal Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill. While the bill does cover those other matters as our spokesperson for women I'd like to concentrate my contribution this evening especially on birth injuries.As spokesperson for women I'm really pleased to see these changes come about that will allow maternal birth injuries to be covered and I spoke in the first reading about the fact that I'd actually started drafting a member's bill very close to these lines but the Minister beat me to it and congratulations to the Minister and to the Education and Workforce Committee for beating this thing into shape and coming out with an even better bill than was first presented to this House. I'm also very pleased to see that it does actually as the Minister acknowledged balance the scales a little in favour of women given that this is a system where men are predominantly the award-recipients of claims and payments. So it is very nice to see something tipping in favour of the women of New Zealand.But we do have a little bit of discomfort around the lack of robust costing and I think that while the regulatory impact statement has done a rudimentary estimate of about $25 million annually we on this side of the House don't view that as robust and we don't think that we have had enough of a provision or indeed an insight into an estimation of how many additional claims may be made through the ACC system once this piece of legislation does pass into law and is in place and therefore we don't have a full understanding as to what that is going to cost the Crown or the taxpayer. We do know though that there are about 18000 women a year who do suffer quite severe quite traumatic injuries. About 85 percent of women who give birth in New Zealand each year do need medical attention and as we all know in this day and age medical services don't come quick and they don't come cheap.The amendment bill proposes that ACC extend cover to include seven injuries as accidents and they include the perineal tearing obstetric haematoma of the pelvis and ruptured uterus and uterine prolapse. Some of these injuries are particularly painful and they take an exceptionally long time to recover from and they do have long-term effects on the lives of new mums who suffer them. We do know and I did refer to this in my first speech to the House on this subject that perineal tears particularly are not uncommon in childbirth but the most severe are known as third- and fourth-degree tears and that was what I did personally appeal for in the first reading in the House because they do involve some really debilitating injuries. So I'm very pleased to see this kind of injury being included in that schedule because they do often require surgery and general anaesthetic and ongoing physiotherapy.There is also the fact that ongoing medical issues as many people in the public do know are profound and they are exhausting and they are time-consuming and already in a period of time that can be life changing for women this is the last thing they need to contend with as well. So while we would agree—and I understand the select committee did hear a lot of submissions around the fact—that mental health injury needs to be covered as well that will not extend to the likes of postnatal depression but it is pleasing to see that the select committee took the view that mental health distress related to maternal birth injury would also be covered.I think the bill is making an excellent step towards advancing the rights and protections of women in New Zealand and particularly mums. We do think that it is a much-needed change for what has been a painful and unfair consequence of a legislative change that was made just a couple of years ago. We do not think as I have referred to that the Government has fully justified the costs but I am happy to commend this bill to the House.