Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. Thank you very much for the opportunity to take a call on this bill. We will hear no doubt throughout the rest of the course as we traverse our opinions on this bill about how it is a small bill but there is a lot of money at stake in it. So I'd just like to commence my contribution by acknowledging the Minister the Hon Dr David Clark for making the decision to basically show the Waikato District Health Board (DHB) the door. This is not a step that was taken lightly so thank you for your leadership on that. Also too I thank the Health Committee for their work in shepherding the bill through the process. We heard from three submitters and I'll talk a little bit about the democracy issue that was raised. I note the member who has just resumed his seat Dr Shane Reti talked about that as well. It is not a usual thing to be shown the door and clearly this is—as we've heard earlier in several of the contributions this evening—something that has happened and in a not too distant past. What I would like to talk about is that we have a situation where there was a large financial deficit. We now have in place an absolutely top public servant who will guide the ship and turn it around which is no easy feat. But it was pleasing to hear through the committee stage yesterday the Hon Dr David Clark speak about his confidence in the very capable Dr Karen Poutasi. She has also been a chief executive of the NZQA and has a significant background in health administration. In fact other members of this House as Dr Reti has just mentioned—he has known her for a good number of years. Three deputy commissioners are also in there and they'll have just a few short years to really make a difference and turn things around. There's also been quite a lot of bad publicity and it's been an umbrella that has overshadowed those who work inside the Waikato DHB those on the ground that are providing services to all the people that need health services—the many and varied health services in the Waikato region. Unfortunately for them they have had to carry on the good work that they do under this shadow particularly the media scrutiny that has highlighted this issue that they have been facing. So hopefully with this new appointment of this commissioner that the Minister has great confidence in—and certainly many members in the Health Committee also have confidence in her—the mana will be restored to those workers at the Waikato DHB. So basically there will be a cancellation; the bill will cancel the 2019 election of the Waikato DHB—it's the 2019 triennial general election for the DHB—and also will ensure certain provisions under the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act 2000 and the Local Electoral Act 2001 will not apply for the period that the bill is in force. Now once we get through that process and there is a new election in 2022 the bill will be repealed on the day that the new members of the Waikato DHB will take office after that triennial general election in 2022. So this is an instrument that will for a very short period of time enable the commissioner to get on with turning around those deficits. Then once again the people of the Waikato will be able to through the process of voting and using their democratic voice select a new board. As I mentioned the Minister does have great confidence in Karen Poutasi and that's a really good thing because the deficit—there was serious dissatisfaction with the performance of the previous board. In 2017-18 there was a deficit of $37.2 million. That was forecast to blow out to $56.1 million for 2018-19 and in fact there was an increasing deficit forecast coming into future years. So that's a big job for Dr Karen Poutasi and I note the Minister did say that the commissioner has already succeeded in appointing a permanent CEO in a short tenure and that the Minister has every confidence that she will continue to tackle the other issues that are currently facing the Waikato DHB. Dr Karen Poutasi has said that she intends to cut the deficit while also improving services. So she's got not just one big job but two big jobs—actually probably many big jobs but those will be a great focus: cut the deficit improve the services to create a DHB that those living in the Waikato region will be proud to be able to use. She also said that she will seek to live within the means by looking at different ways that some of the services—maybe it's the maternity services she referenced and also diabetes care—can be delivered in a more seamless way. She's looking to have a very sustainable DHB and so that will be her focus. I'd like to make mention of my colleague the Hon Ron Mark who spoke to this bill in the second reading. This is around the democratic process and I think it's important that I note that New Zealand First has in the past expressed our concerns about the removal of boards and the appointment of commissioners. Now we've noted this because of our concerns around the loss of democracy but sometimes actually it's really important that if there is an inability to effectively do the job that they are elected to do we need to step in and make changes. In this case I acknowledge the Minister for making that call and taking that step.Just finally the last point I would like to note—and this is something that I'm particularly interested in having spent time in the Māori Affairs Committee and now in the Health Committee—is something that is important to us is the inequity of access to health services for Māori. So I was very pleased to hear the Minister say that the Waikato DHB will not experience any loss of Māori representation due to the lack of a board. In fact as stated in the Government's renewed commitment to Māori-Crown relations all DHB functions will continue to foster the development of Māori capacity for participating in the health and the disability sector as well as providing for the needs of Māori. So that's something I'd like to note: that the Minister has made that very clear because the DHB actually was making great progress in terms of the work that they were doing with Māori and in the health service they were providing and their engagement with Māori. So it's good to see that that won't be diminished through the course of this process while this bill is enacted.So that's my final contribution. Thanks to all members of the House that are making contributions or have made contributions on this bill and now I'd like to commend the bill to the House. Kia ora Mr Speaker.