Bishop ChrisCHRIS BISHOP (National—Hutt South): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. The Organ Donors and Related Matters Bill is a bill that I'm very proud of actually because I've had a little bit to do with the laws and the rules around organ donation. This bill actually seeks to improve on the status quo which was improved in the last Parliament and it was my member's bill that provided for people to get greater amounts of compensation when they are an organ donor.The law used to be that you got the sickness benefit—we've changed the name but it's the equivalent of the sickness benefit. You used to have rock up to Work and Income New Zealand and say you know I want to donate a kidney to my sister" or whatever and after a laborious process of talking to a Work and Income New Zealand case manager most of the time the case manager didn't even know that the entitlement existed so they had to file through the luminous case files and the material that Madam Deputy Speaker I'm sure you're very familiar with from your past roles. And at some point various people were declined compensation and they were declined their benefits. And of course when you do donate an organ—typically in New Zealand a kidney—it's anywhere between six if you're lucky you know more likely 12 weeks off work so for a lot of people having to sacrifice that income and go down to the sickness benefit was an enormous sacrifice. And of course it puts people off donating. Most people do it out of altruism they do it out of the goodness of their hearts typically for a family member—although not always. There are actually people every year in New Zealand who donate organs kidneys for people they've never met because they're just good-hearted people. I think the law was wrong and the law didn't treat them like the heroes that they actually are.So now the law says: if you are an organ donor you are entitled to earn from the Government exactly what you were earning before. So if you're on a good salary—$100000 say for example—and you donate a kidney to your brother to save his life or prolong his life you get what you're earning for that time that you're off work. I think that's an improvement. What this bill does is build on that and it makes some minor and technical amendments.When we were crafting what became the Compensation for Live Organ Donors Act at the Health Committee—it spent quite a long time at the Health Committee; I wasn't a member of the committee but I subbed in—it was quite tricky crafting the provisions because you've got ACC and you've got the various income support mechanisms in New Zealand and it's a very tricky area to get the definitions of "hours" and "weekly earnings" and "monthly earnings" and all of that stuff right. It started off as a member's bill. We were very fortunate to have officials' support—and I do want to pay tribute to the health officials; they do a great job. But what this bill does is make some technical amendments to the way in which "usual hours" is defined. I think that's going to be a positive thing. It's largely a bit of a tidy up and technical.The other major part of the bill is of course around the Blood and Organ Service which has been renamed. For quite a long time now we've been going back and forth about who should be the appropriate body to oversee organ donation in New Zealand and that will now be the New Zealand Blood Service to oversee and provide clinical governance of the organ donation and transplantation service. It's a good move. Actually it was the previous Government's plan to do that pretty much straight away so it's a little bit frustrating I have to say that we're now sort of into the fag end of November and we're sort of still passing the legislation to do it but you know "good things come to those who wait" is the saying and that's a positive thing. It should have happened earlier but it's a positive thing.The next step is the funding. I stay in touch with this space and the people who work in this area say to me that it's a positive move. They say that it should have happened sooner and all the rest of it but they also say that the next step's the money. So my plea to Minister Henare over there who's an Associate Minister of Health is: you've got to come up with the dough in the next Budget my friend because the blood service is going to require an infusion—not a blood infusion—of cash to get on with the job. But it was a positive move—Hon Andrew Little: Easy to do when you're not doing tax cuts.CHRIS BISHOP: Ha ha! Well we're not talking about a huge sum of money; we're only talking about a few million Minister Little. I'm sure—with the largesse that's been showered upon the Government of New Zealand by the hard-working taxpayers of New Zealand over the last two years—you can find it within your measly hearts for a few million to make the blood service work.Ultimately of course the more organ donations there are in New Zealand the better. People who spend their lives on dialysis—firstly their quality of life is low and secondly it's vastly expensive for our district health boards because it's an incredibly expensive ongoing procedure. So of course the more organ donations we can get the better. This bill is a step in the right direction so I commend it to the House."