Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 04 April 2012. Volume:679;Page:1641. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
4. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Hunua) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Health 
: How will young New Zealanders receive better mental health services under the new Government package announced by the Prime Minister today? 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Associate Minister of Health) 
: 
 The Prime Minister’s youth mental health project is an extremely comprehensive prevention-based $62 million package designed to provide practical support to young people and their families in dealing with the complex issues involved in adolescent mental health problems. It includes an additional $11.3 million over 4 years to be made available for primary mental health care including initiatives targeted at young people with mild to moderate needs. The Ministry of Health will be investigating ways in which primary care can be made more youth friendly. An expert group will be set up to work in partnership with the primary care networks to ensure that happens. Jointly with the Ministry of Social Development there will be the establishment of interim support for youth one-stop shops ensuring that these organisations have sufficient administrative support and security of funding. Finally the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service will be charged with improving waiting times and along with primary care providers ensuring a far more consistent approach to follow-up care. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: How will young people and their parents experience better access to youth mental health services as a product of the Prime Minister’s youth mental health project? 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: The project is designed to work in four different places: in schools online in families and communities and in the health system. There will be nurses and specially trained youth workers added to selected schools to help students who need appropriate care. Existing online mental health resources will be overhauled and a social media innovations fund will be put in place to keep providers technically up to date. Because it is often difficult for parents to identify mental health issues in adolescents we will also be providing more funding to non-governmental organisations to assist them to get more information out to parents about what to look for and how to access help. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Could the Associate Minister explain why a highly qualified experienced doctor like Dr Paul Hutchison is not the Associate Minister of Health or Minister of Health—because he has qualifications—yet he with no qualifications is or is that part of the deal he did with John Key before the last election? 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! The Associate Minister has no responsibility whatsoever for the allocation of portfolios—no responsibility whatsoever. I do not want to deprive the member of a question but he needs to bring his question within the responsibility of the Associate Minister of Health. Portfolio allocation is certainly not.  
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: He’s only a learner. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Oh really? We will see who is a learner shortly. I ask the Minister this. Given that Dr Paul Hutchison is a very experienced and highly qualified medical doctor well renowned around this country for having the abilities to be an Associate Minister of Health—yet he is not—why did the Minister not decline the job when he asked for it and it was offered to him by John Key before the last election? 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: I accepted the invitation to take up this portfolio role because I believe very strongly in the initiative that has been produced today. In fact I say to the member that one of the initiatives that it contains—the introduction of youth one-stop shops—is actually part of our confidence and supply agreement. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: How will the success of the project be measured? 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: It will be measured at a couple of levels. Firstly there will be the success if you like in terms of uptake and in the improvement in adolescent mental health generally. But also the Prime Minister has made a commitment that will be carried through that the whole project will be evaluated in 2 years’ time to assess how it is working what changes might be required and what refinements might be made. The fundamental point that comes through in this is that we have a severe issue in New Zealand. We need to do what we can to boost and improve youth mental health service statistics and performance. In fact the commitment of this policy is to achieve just that. 
Iain Lees-Galloway 
: Given that one of the key drivers of youth mental illness is childhood poverty why has the National-led Government allowed the number of children living in poverty to increase by over 34000 since it came into office? 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: What the member should draw upon are the answers given earlier today by the Prime Minister which indicate the significant impact that tax changes have had in improving the living standards of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. But what this package is about is addressing the needs of those who have severe problems who are currently untreated and who currently do not have access. By having a comprehensive programme operating across a range of portfolios we are going to see significant improvement.