Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker. Thank you. I'm very pleased to take a Green Party call on the New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Waikato DHB) Elections Bill. I'd like to start by a defining principle really because I thought one of the previous speakers Dr Shane Reti took a very cheap shot at the Green Party. He seemed to think that because we opposed one bill in the South we would oppose this one. I would remind Dr Reti that the Green Party supported the appointment of commissioners for the Kaipara District Council because that was based on good evidence there of major problems in that district council when its waste-water scheme blew the budget and subjected that council to quite significant costs. So it was quite appropriate that the former National Government and the Minister moved to appoint commissioners to rectify that situation and that there were no elections while those commissioners were in play.We'd also like to note that the Green Party is supporting this bill because it was an absolutely untenable situation in Waikato in terms of what was happening with the district health board (DHB) with the malfeasance of the former CEO with the calls by clinicians for action and with the serious concern that clinicians were expressing in the standards of service there. It is a very different situation from what faced this House when the former National Government suspended democracy in Canterbury so that it could push through an agenda of promoting irrigation. I am very aware what it means for democracy to be suspended having been one of those councillors that were dismissed. So this bill was considered very very carefully by the Green Party because of the implications of the election this year being suspended and elections not being held until 2022. But the Green Party was convinced by the evidence that was well known in the media and elsewhere of the serious situation that the Waikato DHB was in and as others have noted the major deficit that was confronting that DHB of $56.1 million in the 2018-19 financial year. So Dr Reti the decision the Green Party came to was one of principle because it was based on good solid information and our desire to ensure that the Waikato community was safe that it had access to the health services that it needs and we ensured through discussions with the honourable Minister David Clark that some of the same protections for community engagement that were put in with the Southern DHB were implemented here. I am very pleased that Dr Karen Poutasi—virtually every speaker has acknowledged her strong reputation and their respect for her—has already moved to engage with the Māori community in particular. It was the commitment of the Minister that there would be a continued strong engagement with the community and that the existing Iwi Māori Council and the Consumer Council that existed in Waikato would continue as well as the eight locally based community health forums.So yes we don't have the elections but we do have these other methods for the community to engage in the decisions that the district health board is making. This election is being suspended once to enable the commissioner to have an effective time to actually get the board in order and I think it is the culmination of the under-investment by the former Government in health a period of neglect which the current Minister and this Government is remedying—so I also take issue with the point made by the Hon Tim Macindoe about the problems facing district health boards. Those problems are the legacy of that party in Government for nine years. So here we've had a board which was unable to appoint a permanent CEO board decisions reaching the media while the board was still meeting doctors not being happy with the situation—it had broken down.This bill is needed to ensure that a commissioner can go in and do the work that she needs to do. There's been a new CE appointed. There are very effective assistants to the commissioner with the three deputy commissioners Dr Andrew Connolly Chad Paraone and of course Professor Margaret Wilson. That is a very competent and capable team to back up Dr Poutasi. I think that together they will turn the parlous situation in the Waikato around. This bill clearly provides a sunset clause. There will be an election in 2022 and the commissioners will vacate their positions once those elections are held. So it is a way forward for the Waikato community and I'm very surprised that Tim Macindoe wasn't more complimentary of the Minister and the Government in moving to remedy the very serious deficiencies there. I commend the bill to the House.