Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair. Thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Abortion Legislation Bill. Firstly I'd like to ask Minister Little a question which relates to my Supplementary Order Paper 465. My Supplementary Order Paper seeks to make an amendment around the collection of data and the publishing of data which is in clause 7 in replacement sections 20D and 20E. My question primarily relates to why clause 20E has a limitation period of 18 months for the collection of information from abortion services which are provided. Now I'd like the Minister to take a call and explain this. He hasn't explained the rationale regarding this part of the bill yet but I do think it's an important piece because this bill does change the nature and change the way in which information in relation to abortions are collected in New Zealand. Currently the Abortion Supervisory Committee has the responsibility of collecting that information and publishing an annual report. Under this bill the Abortion Supervisory Committee will be abolished and it will become the duty of the Director-General of Health to collect collate analyse and publish information. Under replacement section 20D(1) The Director-General must—(a) collect collate analyse and publish information about the provision of—(i) abortion services in New Zealand; and (ii) counselling services in relation to or in connection with the provision of abortion services; and (b) develop and publish standards for the services described in paragraph (a)."In the next section replacement section 20E abortion service providers are to notify the director-general about abortion services provided. There's a range of pieces of information which they have to provide some of which is provided in Schedule 2. Right at the end under replacement section 20E(5) it says "This section is repealed on the expiry of 18 months after the date on which it comes into force." I guess my first question to the Minister is why is there an expiry date in regards to this second part of the collection of information when there are other parts of this legislation which require information to be collected for much longer periods? One of these could be replacement section 20F(2) which requires that there must be "Not later than 5 years after the commencement of this section" a report around sex selection.So what we're seeing here is I think a discrepancy whereby the abortion service providers are only required to collect information about the abortions provided in New Zealand for only a period of 18 months but there are other aspects of this bill which require information and reports to be created which require up to five years or longer. So I'm asking the Minister if he could take a call and explain this discrepancy to me. And if it is his will as is it would be mine I would suggest that my Supplementary Order Paper may be an opportunity where we can look to remove this subsection 5 in replacement section 20E so that this section continues in perpetuity. I'm not sure if that's the intention so that's one of the reasons why I ask the question. But I would also argue that this should be the intention of this legislation that we do want to see this information collected for a longer period of time so that it's not only able to be used for the purposes outlined in other parts of this bill but also so that there can be comparisons made between the information provided by the Abortion Supervisory Committee in the annual reports that they currently provide and the reports which will then be provided under this new piece of legislation assuming that it passes. In my Supplementary Order Paper it also included a couple of additional sections which could be included in the Schedule which would essentially mean that the report provided by the director-general is going to be the same as what was provided by the Abortion Supervisory Committee so there is a direct comparison between the two. I do ask the Minister to be able to answer those questions to outline to the Chamber the rationale for this discrepancy and I hope that we can work together to fix it."