Barry MaggieHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise to speak to the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Amendment Bill at its first reading. Just to set the record straight on some of this I think that when it comes to the disability sector it's incredibly important that they are represented in Parliament and the select committee process will be an appropriate time for them to talk not only about family caregivers which is at the heart of what we do for our own families. If a family member is disabled we look after them—the complex arrangements that need to be made sometimes to help finance those arrangements on a home-base level need to be very carefully thought through. So we're supporting this bill. We want it through to select committee and we want to be able to hear from the members of the disability community who are really affected by this and whose lives have been touched by trying to come up with the best possible solutions for their own family members to surround them not only with love but also with care and to have the financial ability to do that. I think that the funded family care network which we established in 2013 is something that we as a nation should be proud of. We're very proud on this side of the House that we did that and I'd like to commend the work of the Hon Nicky Wagner who was the Minister for Disability Issues and worked closely with Bill English—Sir Bill English as he is now—to come up with the social investment approach. We have had the intention and indeed the strong desire to ensure that properly constructed structures are put in place but then that they are properly funded. I note that unfortunately last year's coalition Budget was a very bad Budget for people with disabilities. There was hardly any money for them. This particular piece of legislation is going to cost a lot and it needs to be very carefully thought through and then appropriately funded. This coalition Government has failed woefully in its funding of all disability services and the disability budget has actually gone backwards—and that's for the first time in five years. The disability advocates that I have spoken to over the past year or two who had asked for last year a $250 million increase received $7 million less last year than they have in the past. So for a coalition Government that virtue-signals like there's no tomorrow there does need to be money put down on this so that that is not just building up false hopes but it is actually funding what is needed as opposed to just talking about it. I mean to have the disability sector at the lowest levels we have seen as a proportion of Vote Health is a disgrace and for the smug and the self-satisfied on the other side of the House they probably need to swallow that pill and do their best to get some more money out of their Minister for what is an essential service. So in for example Enabling Good Lives which Nicky Wagner began we have a framework with a disability strategy that is all set and ready to go. This coalition Government seems intent on doing—I think you're up to about the fourth iteration of finding out whether Enabling Good Lives is a good thing. There've been pilot projects in the Waikato for example that at the time that we left Government in 2017 were all set and proven with their case and ready to go and with the funding. Instead the disability sector have been telling me loud and clear that instead of getting money for their services it's been taken out and put into yet another evaluation of Enabling Good Lives. Get the act together coalition Government. Put some money into this put some money and care and concern into the disability sector and ensure that you put the correct provision in so that Enabling Good Lives which is the game-changer which is the way that the future is headed for people in the disability sector in New Zealand—one in four of us have disabilities. We need to do better as a country we need to do better as a Parliament and the coalition needs to do better as a Government. So before the triumphant shouting of how fabulous you are with your virtue signalling goes through we'd like to see some solid money put up instead of tinkering with various things. The caregivers' package is a very good thing within this piece of legislation. Narrowly focused though it is this amendment bill we will support it through but the coalition Government can expect that we will be paying very close attention to what funding is going to be put into this because so far the coalition's record on this has been nothing short of disgraceful. Let's hope that you get organised to actually fund this properly because the disability sector deserves better. They deserve more and they deserve better consideration than they've had from this coalition Government which has talked a lot and done absolutely nothing. So while I commend this bill to the House I expect it to come as National do—we expect it to come with a decent price tag to actually fund it. Don't just get hopes up falsely and then not fund; get properly funded and at that point we'll perhaps start taking the coalition Government more seriously when it comes to disability matters. But I will support this bill. We will support this bill through to first reading and we need to look very very carefully at what the disability sector say. So I commend it to the House but with reservations. Thank you.