Kedgley Sue: Estimates Debate —  
Kedgley Sue: Estimates Debate —  
[Volume:610;Page:7196] 
SUE KEDGLEY (Green) 
: 
 I would like to address the estimates which of course are what the debate today is about and in particular a couple of issues in the health estimates. 
The first one is an interesting little sentence in the Health Committee’s report on the estimates under the heading “Trans-Tasman therapeutic products”. The committee notes that the legislative programme for this year includes legislation regarding therapeutic products. Then there is this extraordinary statement: “The ministry was not able to tell us whether drafting of this legislation would wait until our inquiry is concluded.” What does this mean? We have a major Health Committee inquiry going on into how best we should regulate dietary supplements in New Zealand. The overwhelming majority of submitters have suggested that the trans-Tasman model is expensive restrictive and so forth so it is quite likely that we as a select committee will not recommend that model. But a sentence in the committee’s report on the estimates tells us that the Ministry of Health cannot tell us whether it would go ahead with the legislation even if our inquiry should recommend against what the legislation is proposing. What does this mean? Are we completely wasting our time? Why are we having this select committee inquiry if in fact the ministry and the Minister have completely made up their minds and are going to ignore all our recommendations? It would be interesting if the Minister would clarify that unusual sentence. 
Interestingly I received a letter just 2 days ago from Australia from someone who had been talking with the Therapeutic Goods Administration in Australia. On being asked whether the trans-Tasman harmonisation would be going ahead the administration’s answer was that yes it would be going ahead regardless and lots of examples were given as to what would happen to therapeutic goods in New Zealand. The person who wrote to me said: “The way I see it you’re going to lose all products that don’t comply with the TGA. Dare I say it New Zealand will effectively become another state of Australia under the trans-Tasman scheme.” In other words in Australia the Therapeutic Goods Administration is busily telling people the harmonisation will go ahead regardless of the result of our select committee inquiry. Why on earth are we having it? It is completely scandalous that the Government is going to press ahead and presumably ignore all the recommendations of our lengthy and expensive inquiry into this matter. 
The other issue is an odd sentence that points out that the Ministry of Health has still not undertaken any consultation on the National Health Index. Every year for the last 4 years the select committee has made the point that there has not been any consultation on the National Health Index. The ministry has promised it will undertake consultations and every year it has come back and said that it still has not done anything about consulting on this issue. The interesting thing is that the Health Information Management and Technology Plan report  
Working to Add Value Through E-information  
pointed out that it is quite extraordinary that most people are completely unaware that under the National Health Index they have a unique identifier. The report said it is time to get that out of the closet. It is a unique identifier. Most people do not know about it. Consumers must be informed about it and its purpose. There are privacy concerns. The Privacy Commissioner has expressed concerns about it.