SpeechAGNES LOHENI (National): Thank you Madam Chair. Part 3 is about accountability. Accountability is about taking responsibility and accountability for one's actions. So who is accountable? So this part Part 3 details the four roles the four particular groups of this section. So we've got the Support and Consultation for End of Life in New Zealand Group we've got the registrar the review committee and the Health and Disability Commissioner. But in this bill none of these four parties are authorised to collate and review the information pertaining to a case. So how on earth would any of these parties be in a position to report whether the death has occurred in accordance with the Act? As I said there is no oversight there is no accountability in reality in this part and I'm just going to just step through the process around what it would look like for this particular part. Before the process of the diagnosis or a decision to proceed with the lethal dosage the registrar needs to receive a form from the medical practitioner involved and when the registrar receives the notification he's got to have what the lethal dosage is and the date of administration. And the registrar needs to notify the attending medical practitioner if it is satisfied that the processes have been complied with under clause 15. If the registrar is not satisfied the bill does not require the registrar to do anything about it. Then the medical practitioner is supposed to wait with the administration of the lethal dosage until such a notification is received from the registrar. But the bill is silent on what should happen if such a notification is not received before the chosen date of the administration of the lethal dosage. We have to ask ourselves: might a doctor who believes that he has followed the correct process go ahead with the administration anyway? And then we have after the event—after the death. In that process the registrar needs to receive the assisted death report by the attending medical practitioner or the nurse practitioner who administered the lethal dosage. According to clause 17(3)—the registrar is not authorised to inspect this form or compare its information with the information on the other forms pertaining to that case so if there is an anomaly the registrar is not authorised to report it or to do anything about it—the registrar only needs to send it to the review committee. The review committee then has to review the assisted death report and according to clause 20(2)(b) report to the registrar whether it considers that the information contained in an attending medical practitioner report shows satisfactory compliance with the requirements of this Act;". But they have to do so without having access to all the other forms pertaining to this case. In effect the review committee is acting blind on other information. The review committee will only be able to assess whether the form was filled out correctly but they will not be able to tell whether the death occurred without coercion or whether there was informed consent. The review committee will not know whether a nurse practitioner who has administered lethal drugs was really authorised to do so. This bill does not require the nurse practitioner or the attending medical practitioner to provide evidence that the nurse practitioner was authorised to do so. There is no requirement for any witness to be present at the time the person has asked to proceed with the administration or to rescind that request at a later date. There is no need for the person to be competent at the time of confirming whether they want to go ahead with the administration. The bill is silent on what a medical practitioner or nurse needs to do if there is a doubt whether the person is competent or if the person isn't able to communicate their wish at that time."