Hague Kevin: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHague Kevin: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12447. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KEVIN HAGUE (Green):One of the ongoing sources of anger and frustration in my community about the management of the Pike River disaster is that it was the police who took the lead in managing the response to the disaster and who along with Peter Whittall from the Pike River Coal company had responsibility for communicating with the families and with the public. If it had been the Mines Rescue service in charge telling the public that it was not safe to go back into the mine then people would have believed it and would not be angry now at least about that issue. People understand that Mines Rescue is expert in rescuing people from mines and they do not expect police to be. People know that Mines Rescue has no conflict of interest and they trust it.So although I agree with much of what Tim Groser has just told the House about managing this latest issue about contamination of whey powder when it comes to managing the health consequences of that issue—and rather than the 72 hours that Tim Groser has just mentioned actually it is 15 months—and giving parents the information and advice they desperately need a Government that knew what it was doing would have the Ministry of Health leading a major public campaign akin to the one that the ministry ran on swine flu for example. It is the chief medical adviser or the Director of Public Health who needs to be seen talking about this on our television screens every night and in leaflets on every supermarket shelf not the acting Director-General of the Ministry for Primary Industries.Various Ministers in the House yesterday and indeed today were obviously defensive about this issue reassuring us that the Ministry of Health had been involvedfrom the very start. Someone—and I do not recall which Minister it was—even mentioned that they remembered the director-general speaking at one of these meetings as if that in itself were reassuring to us. With respect that is not the point.Even if the chief medical adviser were giving exactly the same information and advice as the Ministry for Primary Industries has been giving that would be more reassuring to the public. That is because when people need advice about a health issue they want to hear it from health experts not primary industry experts. It is also because the Ministry of Health will be trusted as a source of information and advice whereas the public understands that both Fonterra the company responsible for the situation and the Ministry for Primary Industries the Government agency responsible for regulating the industry and on whose watch this disaster occurred have unavoidable conflicts of interest.This mistaken response to the health consequences goes to the heart of a wider problem about this Government. As exemplified by the lead role that has been played by the “Minister for Obfuscation and Diversions” Steven Joyce this Government’s first instinct—as it has been with the series of scandals around the Government Communications Security Bureau and the Henry inquiry for example—is to manage the political consequences through covering up and distractions. Managing the human consequences seems to be an afterthought.So when John Key talks about an inquiry and getting to the bottom of things I have no faith that that is actually his intent and I cannot help but recall the Department of Labour’s failure to even investigate whether its own actions in respect of Pike River met the Government’s legal obligations. When this Government talks about a hands-off approach to regulating industry the Green Party stands instead for regulation for transparency and for honest politics. We need the Ministry of Health on the front end of this issue and even a white coat would help.