Flavell Te Ururoa: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
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TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker; tena tatou katoa. Today is an extremely significant day to be passing the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill into law. Today 9 August 2007 is the thirteenth commemoration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People. It is an important day on which to acknowledge the clear link between mental health and well-being and the strength and resilience of indigenous families and communities—a link that our indigenous brothers and sisters acknowledged long before this bill came into the House. 
As I thought about the significance of this bill on this day I came across a passage from around 1000 AD in a founding document of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Its statement is based upon the principles of peace equity and justice power and the health of the good minds so the founding authority has this to say: “When you sit and counsel for the welfare of the people think not of yourself your family nor even your generation. Think of the future generation so that they will enjoy what you enjoy today. This will ensure peace and health for your generation.” Those words are as relevant today as they were 1000 years ago and we cannot disconnect responsibilities to the present generation or future generations of our people. So the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill is an important measure towards supporting the mental health and well-being of peoples and their families generally. 
The bill extends the expiry date of the commission from the end of this month to 31 August 2015. Like the Greens we are delighted that the life of this commission has been given another reprieve. The commission has the unique capacity to be able to provide us with the objective report-card we need on mental health and well-being in Aotearoa. If one thinks of the demands that are made on the mental health status of this country even just in this last month one sees that there is no doubting the need for this watchdog body. 
The roll call is rather staggering actually. We have received the report of the confidential forum into the experience of former patients at psychiatric hospitals—a report that concluded there needs to be continued scrutiny of the mental health system. Just last week research was released indicating that work-related stress is a cause of clinical depression and anxiety amongst young adults. The latest findings from the Dunedin multidisciplinary health and developmental study which has followed about 1000 Dunedin-born people since their births in 1972 found that almost half of the cases of depression and generalised anxiety disorders newly diagnosed at age 32 were directly related to workplace stress and high job demands. Then there is the finding that 14 percent of the people whom the police have used Tasers on since the trial began in September last year had mental health issues or were suicidal. 
These three entirely separate and distinct issues—psychiatric institutions workplace stress and Taser use—are but a taste of the full range of complex issues impacting on the mental health of New Zealand individuals and their families. I want to place a particular emphasis on whanau well-being and commend the fact that this amendment bill places a new priority on advocacy for service users and families. The voices of whanau in sharing their experiences of mental health services have often been lost from the record. The House may recall the John Kirwan scenario in which a well-meaning friend told him to “just get over it”. I am told that at the Health Committee there were submitters who talked about the alienation they experienced and the sense of loneliness and desperation they felt as it seemed that the health sector or society in general was telling them to “just get over it”. The Mental Health Commission has come right smack dead into this void. It has been able to look at and unpack what is happening in the mental health system—a quality that we desperately need. 
I want to mention particularly the importance of quality services for tangata whaiora and their whanau. I believe it is critical that we do what we can to support the Mental Health Commission in providing leadership in the sector and that the leadership will involve asking some very important questions for Maori. Why are Maori failing to access services? Why are there proportionately more Maori in acute services? What will this country do to address the high prevalence of mental illness and addictions amongst Maori? I understand that the commission has been prepared to tackle the hard issues before and it must be supported to continue its vital monitoring role in guarding the mental health and well-being of Maori for this and future generations. 
During the passage of this bill we have received a number of emails that underline the critical need for leadership in the recovery-based and whanau approach to mental health and addiction services. One consumer of mental health services highlighted the desperate association between poverty and well health. The email read: “I’m a chronic asthmatic sufferer and when I look at the cost of my medication for both asthma and mental well-being it places me in a position of choosing whether I get my meds at $90 a fortnight each time or food for the fortnight.” How did we get to a position in this country where mental well-being and physical well-being are juggled and compromised by such basic needs as food for the table? Another person wrote in reflecting on one of her kaumatua who had trained and worked as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital. She recalled: “You never ever believed Maori had mental illness. He said it became a stigma placed on people because no answers could be found at the time. My mind always goes to his whakairo when the word ‘mental’ is used for Maori.” 
The comments are not just from people who can “just get over it”; they have come from users from workers from consumers from whanau and from tangata whaiora. The Mental Health Commission is ideally suited for being able to provide an independent voice that allows these concerns to be aired and for aspirations to be shared as well. We are pleased too to recognise that the additional roles articulated in this legislation include the opportunity to nurture dialogue across the mental health sector. 
I want to return to the examples I posed earlier in my speech in order to remind the House that a healthy environment for mental well-being is not just about psychiatric institutions and community care vital as it is to ensure that these mental health services are supported to work together. A healthy environment is also about a mentally healthy workplace. The research from Dunedin reminds us that we all have a responsibility towards collective care. For example employers should put in place support structures to ensure a positive proactive workplace. We all have a role to play in supporting those who experience mental illness. The challenge of reducing stigma and discrimination is a key component in the journey to recovery and well-being—a challenge that the Mental Health Commission has played a vital role in promoting. 
The Maori Party is proud to put its name to supporting legislation that will enable the voices of tangata whaiora and their whanau to be heard. We recognise the continuing need for an independent voice and we support the Mental Health Commission in ensuring that people with experiences of mental illness can lead full and satisfying lives.