O'Connor Simon: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Connor Simon: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10842. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SIMON O’CONNOR (National—Tāmaki): I am very pleased to take a call on the second reading of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill. The second reading is the opportunity to speak to the select committee’s report and in doing so I want to thank the Health Committee for its work. As the previous two speakers have indicated this is a bill that has cross-party support and I would like to thank all the members for that. This was one of the simpler agenda items that the committee is dealing with and by its nature it was something that we were able to return to the House relatively speedily. As context the actual select committee at the moment is dealing with four bills four pieces of legislation and I think at the last count we are up to 21 petitions that we are working through. So it is really good that we have had the opportunity to return this particular bill to the House.It has been noted that it has come back with no amendment. That is not completely unusual but I thought I would just point out particularly for those following this with keen interest that the reason there is no amendment is that first and foremost the drafting of the bill was excellent and thank you to the Parliamentary Counsel Office which was involved with that. But also the purpose of the bill is very very simple and I will touch on some of the elements of that as we go through.It is very simple because ultimately we are saying that we are not to hold an election for the Southern District Health Board this year in order that the commissioner may continue her work. May I echo the Minister of Health’s words in thanking her and her team for the work that they are leading there. The intention of this bill is to delay that election and to see that the Southern District Health Board will then go back—or rather a board would be re-elected by the public there in 2019. We had a number of submitters—not a large number as you might expect. I want to thank those who wrote in and then submitted to us orally.There were sort of three themes that came out of the bill. The first was around Māori representation. Those from Ngāi Tahu were very keen that there be a formally appointed person put in a position to work with the commissioner. We discussed this both in principle but also how you could actually make it happen. The advice was very clear that this was out of scope. The reason again is—coming back to as I mentioned earlier the simplicity of this bill—that the purpose of the bill was to extend or push out the next elections. It was not about who is appointed as commissioners deputy commissioners advisers or whatever. The committee being a hard-working insightful committee wanted to make sure our thoughts were clear on this and we have encouraged the commissioner and the team to engage with Ngāi Tahu more. I understand that that is beginning. It is certainly my hope that that is beginning.There were a few questions raised around transparency. Look we have heard already about the efficaciousness of the Health Committee—all nine of us. We wrote down in our report that we wanted to see more engagement more transparency and that is happening. I am not going to go through all the ins and outs. There are certain requirements of the commissioner when she is acting as the board of what she can and cannot do in terms of public engagement. But it is also clear certainly to the committee that more could be done and I am very pleased that that is happening.The second-to-last point is that some were encouraging more community engagement. They were quite concerned about democracy and the loss of a vote. I sort of understand that but the purpose of democracy is not simply to vote. You vote for a purpose and the purpose is good governance and ultimately with the Southern District Health Board there were issues around governance and I think it has been and remains very important that the commissioner is in play. Simply having elections so that people can exercise a vote for no other reason than exercising a vote does not make much sense to me at all.Finally I just want to acknowledge particularly my four colleagues down in the South Island who are part of this district health board: Mike Woodhouse Jacqui Dean Sarah Dowie and Todd Barclay. I have appreciated the work that they have done in supporting their communities there. I have also been grateful for the advice and thoughts that they have given me—the times that they have just pulled me aside and given me some insights into what is happening. So to them I say thank you for the work that they do supporting the community there and I commend this second reading of the bill to the House.