Parmar Parmjeet; Rurawhe AdrianDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I would like to take this opportunity to speak to clause 120. Clause 120 is about Health care enrolment and compliance with core health checks" so in this contribution I want to talk about my amendment. I move that the following amendments be made to clause 120: insert new clause 120(3)—this is "Newborn enrolment with general Practitioners". How pre-enrolment request is made—this is about that. So this amendment seeks to improve health and social outcomes for babies and especially newborns by requiring that newborns are enrolled with general practitioners before they are six weeks old.I think it's fitting that we accept this amendment in my name in this legislation because this legislation already talks about enrolment and compliance with core health checks. This legislation in clause 120 very clearly states that "(1) A person to whom this section applies must take all [responsible] steps to ensure that each dependent child is enrolled with a primary health care provider (for example a primary health organisation or a prescribed health practitioner who is a provider of primary health care)."It's important to note that when there is a newborn in the family the family can easily lose track of time and the first few weeks go really really fast. So it's important that we have a proactive system where the system actually follows up with the family to ensure that the family remembers to enrol that newborn within the initial phase of their life because that is the most important phase of a newborn's life and also for the new mum's healthcare as well.So what happens currently is that after the newborn is sent home and discharged from the maternity care provider the enrolment request on behalf of the newborn is sent through the National Immunisation Register to the nominated general practitioner. When the request goes through the National Immunisation Register to the nominated general practitioner it can sometimes take days or even weeks. So what happens is that when the request appears in front of a general practitioner they can accept it decline it or they can even deactivate it and there is no real-time recording of what's happening with these requests. The data that we have is for three months and the data that we have is not satisfactory when you look at the percentage of newborns that are enrolled with general practitioners at three months but my amendment is to see that newborns are enrolled with general practitioners before they are six weeks old.As we have heard repeatedly from the Labour-led Government they are really keen to do more for children and they are keen for the well-being of children—then this is something that should be paid attention to. It's really important that the well-being of newborns is taken care of and that we actually provide them with all their health checks in a timely manner and connect them to various services which are available free of charge for the newborn and also the new mum.So what happens and the biggest factor that needs to be addressed—and it needs a legislative framework to address it—is that general practitioners can decline the request if they don't know the family or if there is a debt owed by the family to the practice. So if there is a family that moves into a new area—they don't want to take their newborn into the area where they lived previously—they might want to pick another general practitioner as their new general practitioner for their newborn. So when the request goes if the general practitioner sees that they don't know the family or if there is money owing they can decline the request. I believe that these practices should be stopped. General practitioners should be able to decline the request for a pre-enrolment of a newborn only if the general practitioner is running at full capacity—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but it has come time for me to report progress.House resumed.Progress reported.Report adopted.The House adjourned at 5.55 p.m."