Williams ArenaARENA WILLIAMS (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe Madam Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to make a contribution in this committee stage. I have a number of questions for the Minister of Health about the way that the function of the iwi-Māori partnership boards and the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee will work without the assistance of the Māori Health Authority. My specific questions are also to do with a number of amendments which I have tabled which are seeking to clarify the role of those bodies given that the Māori Health Authority will not be playing the role that it was set up to perform for the benefit of Māori health outcomes and for the stewardship of those outcomes within the system. My first question to the Minister is this: given that the iwi-Māori partnership boards under the Minister's proposals will not be able to appoint people to the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee I'm interested in how the Minister sees the iwi-Māori partnership boards having conversations within the health system at a top level about the priorities within their locality.This relates to my second question which is that iwi-Māori partnership boards under the Minister's proposal would no longer have an ability to feed into the development of those locality plans. That is being expressly written out of the legislation but it was something which was a subject of the select committee's inquiry into the bill in the Pae Ora Legislation Committee which was set up as a special committee about how iwi-Māori partnership boards and how iwi themselves would need to feed into that locality planning and it would be a really good way of localising the planning that needed to happen in the health system given that we would now have a broadly nationalised system. So that question to the Minister is about how iwi-Māori partnership boards can continue to have that local focus and feed into what needs to be a deeply localised planning model at that level. My third question to the Minister is about who he intends to appoint to the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee because under the Minister's new proposals he would be the only appointer of eight new members of that committee. Just for the benefit of the committee that committee would not have been something which was appointed only by the Minister before. This in fact represents a major centralisation of power here. It represents Ministers taking on a role that was previously devolved to representatives of local communities who worked hand in glove with organisations like their local councils their local providers and their local people on the ground actually seeing and distributing these health services. So the question to the Minister is: is it his intention to appoint people who will fulfil that role of local leadership local stewardship from iwi Māori groups and if he could give the committee an indication of the eight people whom he intends to appoint—because their appointments are due on 30 June—that would assist the committee greatly in understanding how that local voice will be preserved. It would also be very useful for the Minister to clarify for the committee what criteria he's using to make those appointments what advice he has taken to make those appointments and the considerations that he has taken into account to achieve a balanced representation when he is considering those appointments. There are a number of factors that any Minister will go through in considering what sort of advisory group he or she will be appointing and so it is really beneficial for the committee to understand that because those are not outlined in the primary legislation. Unlike many of the ministerial appointments where there is a clear guidance for the type of skills there is none of that because it is not an established process and it is not outlined in the primary legislation. So we need to appreciate that before we can go forward on that. My next question to the Minister is: will the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee have a secretariat? Under the new proposals by the Minister this group would fulfil a role which is unlike its current role and so it's important that that is a group that is resourced to be able to make the kinds of recommendations which this set of proposals to repeal the bill would require of it—so whether there is a secretariat what kind of resourcing will be available to it whether it will have its own staff whether it will be set up to succeed or whether it will be set up to fail. That is the question I'm asking here because currently it is not doing the kind of job that is envisioned by these reforms and so it's really important for the committee to appreciate whether there is a protection for it to continue to do that work.The next question I have for the Minister is: will it be able to proactively advise the Minister because as it is worded in the current reforms it is for the Minister to establish it but then there is no requirement on the Minister to consult it on any matters. This is different from what existed in the legislation before where the Minister was required to engage with certain bodies within the health system on outcomes for Māori. Essentially this was about creating ownership—rangatiratanga—over outcomes for Māori by Māori. It was about establishing leadership within the health system of experts who were appointed by people who supported them and saw them as leaders within the system to make proactive points to the Minister. Those powers have been taken away so we need an assurance from the Minister that he will allow this board to proactively advise him on his decisions and decisions being made in the health system which will have an impact on Māori health and Māori health outcomes. They are things like resourcing decisions things like legislative decisions—which my colleague Cushla Tangaere-Manuel talked about—that historically have been made without Māori involvement and should be going forward because I have no doubt that everyone in this House believes to some degree in people being involved in the decisions which affect them.My next question to the Minister is specifically about the locality plans. If iwi-Māori partnership boards—as is proposed in these reforms—do not have the ability to contribute to locality plans how will locality plans represent the interests of Māori within them? How will the entities that are tasked with providing the Ministry of Health with a locality plan be sure that they have taken population concerns for everyone into account knowing that there is this particular equity concern for Māori and how will those locality plans be responsive to the needs of Māori and to addressing the Māori health outcomes going forward?The final question that I have for the Minister is this. Under the new model there is no legislative backstop for the Hauora Māori Advisory Committee to be able to give proactive advice that the Minister doesn't like. There is no legislative backstop for that group of people to say something publicly that is challenging for the status quo. That was a large part of the strength of the pae ora reforms: it was to create a way for Māori health to be prioritised systematically to enable continuous improvement in the way that we address inequity for Māori. So my question to the Minister finally is: what happens if they say something he doesn't like? How will we ensure that all advice not just good advice is what makes it to the Minister when he is the sole appointer and has the sole power to dictate their resourcing and their ability to provide that advice going forward because it's in everyone's interest not only Māori to have a health system that works for everyone and to make sure that resources are spent in the most efficient way that's actually going to work for people. So those are my questions about the way that this works and I will if I may come back to the amendments which I think would more effectively achieve some of the changes to the way that Māori participate in the system in coming speeches. I have 40 amendments in my name Madam Chair; I would love to have 40 calls in this debate.