Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. Madam Chair it's a pleasure to rise and take a call on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand on the appropriations debate for health. My contribution will focus primarily on the issues of mental health and addiction and actually align relatively nicely with the Government's mental health and addiction inquiry which has been canvassed by a number of those who have contributed to this debate so far. I also before I start getting into the meat of this issue want to acknowledge the Minister the Hon David Clark for his brilliant work and for working alongside us in good faith on a number of issues particularly the very vexed issue of drug law reform which I'll note is an incredibly emotive issue and has elicited emotive responses from many in this House as we have progressed with legislation.One of the many things that we're proud of as the Greens as a supporting party of this Government is delivering the Piki programme delivering free culturally appropriate fit-for-purpose mental health services for those between the ages of 18 and 24 in this country. We working in confidence and supply with the Labour Party and obviously they in coalition with New Zealand First have delivered—that's you Mark Patterson and Jenny Marcroft—this Piki programme now throughout Greater Wellington. I was fortunate enough to join the Minister and Associate Minister Julie Anne Genter at Victoria University of Wellington a few weeks ago. Actually what was most exciting about being at Victoria University of Wellington to announce that rollout was the fact that we got to acknowledge the incredible mahi of students whom I had hosted in my office only a year before as they planned their campaign to try and raise awareness of the issue of mental health and indeed to try and get resourcing to make sure that none of their friends and whānau had to go through many of the dark times that they themselves had found themselves in.I also want to speak to the mental health and addiction inquiry which the Government is expected to respond to relatively quickly in the next few weeks in the lead-up to the Budget. I'm incredibly proud to have been involved in the Government's response to it. The mental health and addiction inquiry supports of course the huge growing amounts of contemporary research into the issues of mental health and addiction. I have found frequently that politicians like to demarcate the issues of mental health and addiction being that one has to do with the vexed as I just said issue of drug substance abuse. However I think it is important for those who are listening to this debate tonight to recognise that as was reflected in that report there are the same environmental drivers for people who experience mental ill health as for those who begin to pick up and engage in addictive or dependent behaviour when it comes to substances. This report also reflected the experiences that I have heard from students across the country in my touring up and down and also actually from services such as Te Whare Mahana in Golden Bay and Te Kauwatawata in Gisborne who are both providing incredible incredible services for their local communities.I also want just briefly to touch on the costs and benefits actually when it comes to drug law reform because as has been mentioned multiple times throughout my five-minute contribution this is a vexed and controversial issue but in October of 2018 the New Zealand Drug Foundation commissioned an independent report from Sense Partners an accountancy or economist projecting firm by any other name. They focused on three key areas of drug law reform and essentially found out that on the first when it comes to decriminalisation of people who use substances New Zealand would be better off to the tune of $34 million to $83 million per year; when it comes to regulating and legalising cannabis that New Zealand would be better off by $10 million to $53 million a year; and when it comes to providing better mental health and addiction services it would cost us a $159 million investment but ultimately in terms of the social returns we would end up $244 million better off per annum. This is reflected in the Government's work programme when it comes to mental health and addiction primarily in our response to the synthetics crisis—the misuse of drugs amendment—and also of course by the referendum to legalise and regulate cannabis.