Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I want to speak about the most recently released—released yesterday actually—report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction. It was obviously released yesterday. This report encompasses the findings—having spoken to 2000 people at 26 meetings around the country and of 5200 submitters.I want to speak to the breadth of this consultation because I think that it's incredibly important to drive home that this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The last inquiry which we saw into mental health in this country—the last nationwide inquiry—occurred in the 1990s after the 1980s through 1990s closure of a number of institutions whereby people who were institutionalised were released back out into their communities. A kind of moral panic response resulted and it was important that we as a society looked into how we best look after each other.However this inquiry goes far broader than those past inquiries. It has far wider terms of reference particularly in looking beyond the health sector and services and into social determinants of mental ill health. But notably it also goes further than just looking at mental ill health by itself and includes the problem of addictions and abuse of alcohol gambling substances and other drugs. Notably 50 to 80 percent of New Zealanders will experience mental distress or addiction challenges or both in their lifetime and a large number of people will experience those two things coexisting. I just want to point to something which is mentioned in this report as a result of those numbers of submissions where the inquiry board says We were told that addiction is the opposite of connection a taniwha that isolates users and holds them in its grip."What are we talking about when we talk about mental health and addiction? I think if we flip the issue on its head ultimately we're talking about well-being or perhaps a lack thereof. We're talking about things like community care kindness empathy connection purpose and meaning. And those last two are critical because purpose and meaning are critical to a sense of identity and a sense of belonging and a sense indeed of well-being. But it is difficult to find that purpose and that meaning if you can't navigate your way through life under enormous amounts of stress and strain. Over the past few months I've been travelling around the country speaking at hui particularly to university students on the issue of mental health and I think someone put the point most eloquently when they said that they can't afford to make mistakes.When you can't financially emotionally or otherwise afford to make mistakes you can't find your feet. When it's too expensive to do that I think that it's a matter of course that people are experiencing mental ill health and issues. These environmental factors of income health education and housing are critical because more and more research and evidence is showcasing that that's how most mental health issues end up emerging and even if you have underlying psychological or biological susceptibility it is exacerbated.The biggest factor that informs the environment that we as people and society live in is our culture and culture by definition is a shared set of values. We do not presently have a culture that values or prioritises well-being. We do not currently have a culture that values or prioritises people. Instead we seem to have a culture which values individualism and competition—which isn't by itself a bad thing but is when it runs away from us and turns into a culture of isolation.I think that this culture is unfortunately perhaps most manifest in our Parliament and our parliamentary culture which I note is supposed to be representative of Aotearoa New Zealand. In this House I have sat here and I have listened to jokes about the mental health of other members and about the drugs or medication that they may be on. Today I am standing up and saying that that is not good enough and we as representatives in this country have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I presume we will have a conversation about the expenses inherent in this report but good manners don't cost anything. Kia ora."