Goudie Sandra: Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:612;Page:9578] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I am very pleased to stand to speak to Part 1. What comes to mind for me is what these particular parents are thinking as they grow older and as their children grow older. These parents start to worry and become anxious about what they can do to make sure their children are protected when the parents can no longer do that when they are no longer capable of ensuring their children’s ongoing care protection safety and security in a secure and caring environment. When we talk about “children” we are talking about grown children who may be 45 years of age 6 feet 2 inches tall and hugely strong but who have the mental capabilities of a 5-year-old. The overriding concern of those parents is that their children have a safe and caring environment. 
I am looking at the meaning of “facility” and “secure facility” in the bill. Those facilities are what some of the parents are seeking for their children. They want a secure environment for them. It need not be a secure facility in the terms we know such as a hospital; it could be a residential house. But it has to be secure in the terms of this bill. But is that enough? Is it enough to know there is 24-hour care for someone like Barry Ryder when one knows that the system can fail? For those sorts of persons who can be a risk to themselves and to others but more particularly to others the system has failed to ensure that they are in a secure environment. There is the danger of that secure facility not necessarily going to the nth degree. But this bill is here and it is providing a degree of comfort for parents who do have that growing sense of anxiety as they themselves get older. It is a very real concern. I have talked to some of these parents. 
I put some questions to the Minister about what services would be in place to provide secure beds for intellectually disabled people with high and complex needs and for persons who might come within the ambit of this bill. The first 10-bed hospital-level secure unit Te Huia has been established in Wellington and others are going to be established in the main centres. But will that be enough? I put it to the Committee that given some of the speeches we have heard today it will not be enough. For example foetal alcohol syndrome is becoming a recognised problem particularly in prisons. So are 10 beds at Te Huia and maybe eight beds here and 10 beds there going to be enough in the terms of the facilities and secure facilities identified in this bill? How many are we going to end up having and will they be enough to meet the concerns of parents with regard to the provision of a secure and safe environment for their children as they grow older? 
Those parents wonder how their children will fit into these placements. They are somewhat hopeful given the passage of this bill. They are also hopeful about their other concerns around caregivers and care providers—that they will be better paid better trained and better supported. That is a huge concern. It is as important to the care and protection of their children as the provision of secure facilities. We need to have provision for within those facilities care providers and caregivers. It is necessary that there is a holistic approach if one likes to meeting the needs of the individuals within those secure facilities or secure environments. 
I would like to recognise the Hauraki Lifestyle Supported Trust which is in my electorate. It does an excellent job in providing a secure and safe environment for the people in its care. I am incredibly heartened by the heartfelt way in which it provides for the people in its care. I see it as a model and it has been recognised as a model. I want to acknowledge the people involved with it. It is to be hoped that the secure facilities that are identified in this bill do have that sort of support.