Walker HamishHAMISH WALKER (National—Clutha-Southland): This is the year of delivery—2019 is going to be the year of delivery. That's right. I've got a new campaign slogan for the Labour Party for next year's election: the year of delivery for Southland mothers to give birth on the side of the road since 26 May 2019". What a relief it is that mother Amanda and 10-pound Levi are doing OK. This is every mother's worst nightmare. Imagine what it would feel like in the middle of the night in rural Southland all alone apart from your midwife and you go into the maternity centre to find that the maternity centre is missing critical lifesaving equipment like oxygen. The poor old midwife—it isn't fair on the midwife who was there—makes the decision to leave the maternity centre because this Government was so incompetent they didn't have lifesaving oxygen in the Lumsden Maternity Centre. You put this mother and baby at risk. This should not have happened.I warned the health Minister on 9 May. I sent him a letter. I said "Health Minister I have grave concerns because the promised maternity hubs which were supposed to be up and running by 15 April"—three or four weeks earlier—"are not." Despite the district health board (DHB) all through the media saying "Nothing to see here" they are up and running. What did the health Minister do with that? What did the health Minister do with that letter on 9 May? The answer in the House yesterday: nothing because it didn't reveal anything new. Well health Minister if you'd listened to that letter and you'd taken action like you should have—you are accountable to the DHBs—you would not have put this rural Southland mother and the midwife in this horrible horrible situation.I hate to say it but for the last 14 months this Government has refused to listen. You had the College of Midwives you had the local community the local midwives the local GPs the local volunteer emergency services—were they ever listened to? No. They were warned. I see this morning the DHB has launched an independent investigation. Let's hope that this time they actually consult the people on the ground who are doing the work who know best as opposed to sitting behind their desktop computers in Dunedin.Only two weeks after the Lumsden Maternity Centre was downgraded we had a birth on the side of the road. The community warned this Government and the DHB time and time again. Let's look at the response since this happened on Sunday. Let's look to see if the health Minister has been taking some accountability. Let's look at his comments. I asked him in the House: Mr Health Minister can you please clarify whether you are happy—is it acceptable that a mother in 2019 has to give birth on the side of the road? He gave his assurance that mothers and babies will continue to receive the high quality excellent care they deserve. Well health Minister if that's the quality of care for rural Southland mothers in 2019—actually I don't know what to say. You're playing Russian roulette with Southland mothers. The message to the wellbeing well-intentioned Prime Minister who fronted up to a post-Cabinet press conference on Monday said—the question was put to her "Is it acceptable that a baby was born on the side of the road?" Well she started talking about epidurals. If she gets her basic advice right no primary birthing unit in New Zealand has access to epidurals because it's explicitly excluded from the Ministry of Health arrangement. So to the advisers to the health Minister please get the facts right to the Prime Minister.She also mentioned the low birthing numbers. Well let's talk about those low birthing numbers because the Ministry of Health still haven't answered my question. It states "Primary birthing units must be within 60 minutes of a base hospital or 100 or more pregnancies in the birthing area." Lumsden is more than 60 minutes and it's had more than 100 pregnancies but when I put the question to the DHB "No it's about the birthing numbers." I want to give a voice to the Southland community today because no one's been listening to them and I want to give a voice to the mother who gave birth on the side of the road. My heart goes out to you Amanda. The message direct from Amanda to this Government: "Rural people don't matter to this Government unless you live in a city. We do not matter but we do matter because we pay taxes we pay rates like people in town do. Something needs to be done before this Government has blood on their hands. Lumsden Maternity Centre needs to be reinstated before a disaster occurs."I just want to say to the Southland community: you do matter; you do care. The National Party understands how important to the safety of rural mothers and babies this facility is which is why Simon Bridges' first promise was to reinstate full services at Lumsden Maternity Centre if re-elected next year.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed."