Barry Maggie; Rurawhe AdrianHon MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore): Thank you Mr Speaker. I rise with pleasure to speak at the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill's first reading. I will echo the sentiments of many other members in this House that cross-party cooperation and a shared sense of the importance of the work that is being undertaken is very much part of what is I suppose the wairua the spirit behind this. The purpose of this bill is to establish a mental health and wellbeing commission. That is going to have a lot of power a lot of influence and a lot of ability to take a more holistic approach than has ever been managed before in New Zealand.I echo what others have said as well—that it's up to all of us not just some of us. And so to the people of New Zealand that invitation to collaborate cooperate and be part of how this commission will work is very much welcomed through the select committee process. We all need to work together not only in this House not only across party but also through the whole of New Zealand. We need to be more open as many have said about mental health issues. Traditionally New Zealanders don't tend to speak of these things. I acknowledge Jenny Marcroft and others in this House who've shared their own family experiences. These are not easy things to talk about but thankfully they're easier now than they ever were before and long may that continue. So there does need to be in the interim—and it is good there is an interim commission. There's a lot of work to be done. And that initial group with a board of two to five members has a great deal of work to do to guide that groundwork for the permanent commission.There does need to be though in the meantime I think no lack of focus on early interventions and increasing accessibility across the country. We can't afford to sit back and say Oh good there's a commission it's coming over the horizon and on 9 February 2021 it will be with us and it will solve all our problems."—no it won't. So in the meantime we need to be vigilant. We need to continue to put the resourcing and the intellectual rigour into trying to help the people who are at the front line and are really suffering. They can't wait for a commission to deliver for them but contributing to better mental health and wellbeing outcomes for New Zealanders is a vision we must all embrace. And I think doing that through establishing an independent Crown entity which will have independence from the Government of the day but will also have that accountability to need to report to need to measure and to need to stick to its goals.I think that when you look at the reporting and auditing requirements under the Act and that's the Crown Entities Act "preparing statements performance expectations and annual reports" might cause the eyes of members of the public to glaze over and for them to slump to the ground and lose the will to live. But for those of us who know how important it is to have accountability and to have proper reporting if things are to work that is a very important and key ingredient of this new Crown entity that we're talking about establishing through this legislation. I think that publicly reporting on any matters concerning the mental health and wellbeing of New Zealanders is a laudable aim and that's a proposed function but also from that and further to that to be able to make recommendations to all people—so that's not just including the Minister of the Crown responsible in the day but on any matters concerning mental health and wellbeing. That's a freedom and a breadth of vision that has not been seen before in New Zealand mental health care and I commend it. I think also that it's well placed to obtain information from Government departments and other Crown entities and other NGOs who might be a little less than forthcoming. This entity will have the power to require information and I think that that is a good thing as is the transparency that will come with the structure. So we're very much in favour of the development of an independent Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission that also has at its core particular regard to the experiences of and the outcomes for Māori. It is extremely important that independent complaints while taken into account are not the business of the commission because otherwise the commission would spend all of its time effort and energy on those individual things. There does need to be a broader vision and we support that. The one element of this that we don't support really and are concerned about is the shortened select committee process and the report-back date. My colleague Michael Woodhouse who is very fond of the figures—four months and 11 days before it is reported back to the House. I only hope that's time enough to allow the level of public participation in the select committee process that this bill deserves and requires. So on a practical level on a philosophical and visionary level National very much supports the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission Bill and I commend it to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): This is a split call. I call Jo Luxton—five minutes."