Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Bill Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Bill Medicines Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:611;Page:8634] 
JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: 
 This is the sort of legislation that we in the Opposition would like to be able to support and we will support the later part of the original bill today which is now in the Health and Disability Commissioner Amendment Bill because that deals with the disability provisions and we are in complete agreement with those provisions. 
However the chair of the Health Committee Steve Chadwick is so lacking in leadership that she could not get up here today and thank the members of the select committee in the proper way. She wanted to imply that some of us were not cooperative which is a lot of rubbish but we certainly were cooperative. She said she wanted to thank those of the committee who had worked with the Government in a constructive way yet we worked constructively all the way through the process on this legislation. It was a long process and if Steve Chadwick does not have the gumption today to thank those people I will do so. I now thank Pita Paraone Heather Roy Dr Lynda Scott Sue Kedgley Judy Turner Nanaia Mahuta Dianne Yates Anne Hartley Dave Hereora and Steve Chadwick—and I do that because the leadership of that select committee is so lacking. 
What did Steve Chadwick do in her speech? She grovelled to the Minister dear Annette King and said she was wonderful. We had another speech from young Darren Hughes and what did he do? He grovelled too. Then what did Moana Mackey the very very nice young member of the House and the select committee do? She got up and had a grovel too. So that was three grovels. That was all that those members had to say and that is probably about right. They also insulted everyone else who did not agree with them. 
The United Future party is voting for this legislation and I accept that. It is in bed with the Government and that is fair enough. However United Future has said that it has a couple of concerns about the legislation. Every Opposition party shares those concerns but unlike United Future we are not all rolling over and cuddling up to the Minister. One of the concerns is about the Minister’s powers. Even United Future has concerns about the powers of the Minister because this Minister is so far from talking about professionalism among health professionals that she is actually all about putting them down. She does not like health professionals to be a stroppy educated lot; she wants them all to be nice appointed people who owe their position to the Minister and that is not right. 
I note that the Greens have expressed their concerns about that as well. I would like to pay tribute to the speech that Sue Kedgley gave in which she clearly said that. Those of us who sat through the hearing of the huge number of submissions on this bill along with all the hearings held during the adjournment and all the time spent out of the House on this legislation all felt that we were really really working well together. Of course we cannot all agree on everything but at least on the Opposition side of the House we can be decent about it and do not insult someone for disagreeing with us. 
The Minister does not like the provision in the Medical Practitioners Act that allows medical professionals to elect some of their members. Why is that? It is because they might think they are representing some doctors or because they might be elected by doctors because they actually know something and we cannot have that. It is shown in the papers that despite our many many attempts all we could get out of the Minister was that if she feels like it she may decide at some stage to allow medical practitioners and all the other health professionals to elect one member—or maybe more than that if they are very very good and constantly say how good the Government is to them which just will not happen—out of a total of 14. That is just sheer arrogance. 
This Minister does not respect health professionals—so much so that she will not even allow them to be called “professionals”; they are now to be called “practitioners”. Those people who give their time and effort in undergoing many years of training in all the different areas of health are now to be called “practitioners” and not “professionals”. The best way to get professionals to act in a professional manner is to treat them as though they are professionals. If we treat people as though they are professionals the chances are that they may actually be professional. But this Minister cannot risk doing that because if people are professional they will be independent and robust and they will certainly sort out that Minister. We can see why the doctors’ magazines state that 48 percent of the doctors surveyed want Dr Lynda Scott to be the Minister of Health with 8 percent saying that they want the current Minister of Health. That is something—8 percent. 
Heather Roy 
: And 8 percent want Dr Paul Hutchison. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: Oh and 8 percent want Dr Paul Hutchison! 
Heather Roy 
: And others. 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: And others? That must be Heather Roy! 
One of the other areas that we are concerned about is that the Minister is the final arbiter on the scopes of practice. What could that Minister possibly know about scopes of practice? We have a situation where scopes of practice are untried in a country; we are to be the guinea pigs. One of the constituents in my electorate rang in the other day and said she wanted to stop this legislation because it had nothing about patients in it. So I told her to contact Annette King before the end of today. But I do not think that will make a scrap of difference because I do not think the Minister really cares about it. Nor does the chairperson of the Health Committee; she really does not care about it. 
One of the other things that the Minister will be able to do is to state what “restricted activities” are for professional groups. How would she know about that? The professional groups are the right people to decide those things because they are the people who know their own competencies know the stresses they work under and know their conditions of work. They do not need a bureaucrat and her other little bureaucrats to tell them how to do that. 
Let me go on to an area that has given me a tremendous amount of interest: the cultural competence area. Every time I mention that in the House I get a barrage of abuse from the Government side and I must say I do quite enjoy it that the Government members show their colours—finally. Every health professional who will now be called a health practitioner must be registered and must show not only that he or she is ethically and professionally competent—and we have no problem with that—but also now that he or she is culturally competent. That term is not defined and when an area like that is not defined it raises serious concern. I can see that provision being used to stop overseas health professionals from coming and working in this country. The midwives association has already said it will be able to use it to stop the terrible midwives coming in from overseas who are not culturally competent. When asked in the select committee which ones they were talking about they said the Australian midwives. That shows the level of pathetic political correctness that this bill is all about. It is all about sucking up to political correctness—sucking up to the Minister and giving her all the jobs forgetting the poor old patients and the poor old people who actually do the work and giving everything to the Prime Minister and her mates.