Costley TimTIM COSTLEY (National—Ōtaki): It's a pleasure to speak in support of this bill in the name of my good friend and colleague Katie Nimon. It's really pleasing to see her pick up the ball and run with it passed from the very safe hands of National's new Minister for Mental Health the Hon Matt Doocey. He's done great work in this space. I just want to acknowledge that on the many occasions he's come and visited my electorate when we visited the local youth one-stop shops we've held public meetings actually one of the first things that he has always acknowledged is that this is one area that across the House people work on together. He's always acknowledged the cross-party work in mental health and we've heard that from almost all the speakers today. I think that's really admirable.You know so often the snapshots that get put on TV shows are the heated moments; they show the tension—actually I don't know that that's great for people's mental health to be fair—but it doesn't capture some of the real meaningful work that takes place. I want to commend not just Matt but all of those across the House who have contributed to this and particularly some of the contributions today. You know to hear the Greens and ACT speaking together on the same topic New Zealand First and Te Pāti Māori I think is really encouraging. I wonder if this is actually not the time for politics. What if this was just one of those moments? There will be lots of days this year there will be lots of questions there will be lots of speeches there's lots of times to heckle and get in the shots the witty comments—they're fantastic but is this the issue to do it on? I just wonder if this is the moment that we can actually show some leadership across the House to New Zealand on this issue that actually this is one thing that we can unite on. I heard the criticism about sloganeering—you know it could do more.Frankly I think it's great to see this happening because two years ago this was apparently a step too far for the House. Actually I think words matter. I think the change is meaningful. I think it matters that we are role modelling we are demonstrating to the people of New Zealand that we care that this matters that this is important. It's important enough to National to have the first Minister for Mental Health. It's important enough to this House to put through a bill that says actually mental health is important in our strategy; listening to the advice of the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission is something that we want Ministers to take note of.I won't be the only person in this room today that in the last six months has been at a funeral of a friend who's made a terrible decision. I won't be the only person in here today who's been supporting someone or who has supported someone struggling with mental health who has walked next to them. There will be those who will have even more perhaps darker experiences than me. That's really important.But this is something that we can't afford to pass by not in this moment. Just this week on Monday I was meeting with our local police and they were telling me that 70 percent of their time is taken up—at least 70 percent—just with domestic violence and mental health now. This is a huge issue in our community. I speak with social workers. I spoke with a doctor from Victoria University—90 percent she reckons of the issues they are seeing now in our young people are mental health. Making even small symbolic changes is still meaningful and it's worth it.I think of Raechel and the team at Kāpiti Youth Support in Paraparaumu in Kāpiti in my district—the amazing work they do as a youth one-stop shop. I think about Glenn and the youth one-stop shop in Levin in Horowhenua and their amazing work. I'm really fortunate that I have two in our electorate—two of just 10 I think around the country—showing them that actually we care; that actually this matters; that actually their contributions are valued; that this is a meaningful first step.To hear criticism that we're not doing anything in the first hundred days and yet here we are in the first hundred days saying well we're actually not going to let this go past and we're not going to make this a political thing. We have the opportunity to all join together to all take some steps forward together.So let's finish. This is not about me; this is about people who I have seen their work in the community; people who have struggled—it's about them. So let me finish with a couple of quotes from the experts. We heard from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission when they criticised the 2022 bill talking about mental health being—and I quote—almost invisible within [it]." They wanted more explicit referencing. The Mental Health Foundation said it showed an—this is a quote—"absence of any ownership [or] leadership". Well we have the opportunity today to show that ownership to take some leadership and do what the Mental Health Advocacy and Peer Support Trust said to have the Minister give regard to the advice from the commission to bring this forward to bring mental health into the Act. That's why I'm supporting this bill and commending it to the House."