Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
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JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: 
 During the debate on this bill we have tried to be constructive in the Opposition and we tried to be very constructive during the select committee process. The Health Committee worked very hard on this bill. We worked very well together across the parties and that was great. However Part 6 is the worst part of the bill and I am appalled that we have it here in the Committee. I will bring up two issues on this particular part tonight. 
The first issue relates to the concept of cultural competence. When I have trotted around the country as I have and have spoken to people in the health profession business I have said to them that this bill has some good bits in it but unfortunately it is like the curate’s egg and has some really rotten bits as well. If and when this bill is passed—and I hope for support tonight for this part not to be passed—it will have the regulators of health professionals concerned not only with the ethical competence and the clinical competence of professionals but also in charge now of their cultural competence. Cultural competence is not defined in this bill because of course it is sort of like the fourth article of the Treaty of Waitangi: it does not exist. We are not even told which particular culture we have to be competent in. That provision is an absolute nonsense and an outrage. 
All of us here tonight in the Chamber have been either the patients of health practitioners and/or health practitioners ourselves. At no stage have any of us gone along to our health professionals and said we wanted to know how culturally competent they are. I would like to hear anybody say that he or she cares how culturally competent the people in the accident and emergency department are when he or she comes in from a road crash. Not one person in this Committee with any brain at all would ever want to ask how culturally competent they are. 
It is absolutely right that any person who goes to a health professional wants to know that that professional knows what he or she is doing and is clinically competent. That is fair enough and it is good that the Minister wants that to be included. Absolutely people want to know that a health professional behaves ethically. They want to know that they will not be told they have to have a bit chopped off that they do not really need to have chopped off just to get income coming in for a professional. They want to know that they will not be sexually molested by a health practitioner—and nor should they be. But for goodness’ sake I ask whether any members of this Parliament have ever asked an orthopaedic surgeon how culturally competent he or she is. If they have I hope they had the result that I suspect that they would have had which was to be told to get out of the surgeon’s office immediately. 
This provision is an absolute outrage. We have a health profession that is under much stress. These people are front-line people and they are struggling to provide the most basic necessities. They have to work in a Third World health system under this Government and here they are being told to be culturally competent. That is absolutely rich. The Government cannot even tell us which particular culture they are supposed to be going for. That is an outrage. 
If we ask who will be in charge of this provision we all learn that under clause 116 it will be the Minister. The Minister has given us all that stuff tonight about how she will appoint doctors to look at doctors but they will be her doctors. They will not be doctors who have the confidence of their professional peers; they will be doctors who have the confidence of the Minister. That does not give a lot of confidence to anyone else and that is one of the problems. The Minister talked to us about how she likes to go and consult with others. I ask the Committee to look at clause 5 where she has chopped that out.