Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Tēnā koe e te Māngai; otirā ki a koutou katoa kua huihui nei i tēnei pō o tēnei tū tuatahi o tēnei wā o tēnei session nō reira tēnā koutou.[Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker; indeed to you all who are gathered here this evening for this first speech of this period this session greetings one and all.]It's an honour to stand here tonight. Well it's actually been a little perplexing if I'm brutally honest. While I've been listening over the past hour or so to my colleagues across the aisle in particular as we discuss the well-being of our kids—starting with the most precious our babies—I am sitting here slightly frustrated with members opposite because when we are talking about our taonga our pēpē it must be the well-being of those tamariki that is at the forefront of any legislation any policy amendments that we make in this House.I sat there and I had some pleasant remarks to make about how members' bills are an opportunity for us on both sides of the House to engage on issues that are specific and pertinent to individual members—in this case the member Parmjeet Parmar—but then I had to listen to my colleague Mr Doocey who lambasted this side of the House for the lack of care that we show for our kids. He went on some kind of diatribe about the way in which we use the time that we have to make decent laws for our kids and then he put a couple of questions to us: why would we oppose the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill which seeks to look after our tamariki in the most vulnerable stages of their lives? Where is the evidence?"—he implores—"I haven't heard one member on that side of the House talk about any evidence as to why they're opposed." But for every single submission that came in from the medical practitioners—whether they be midwives or whether they be general practitioners every single medical association agreed with the intention of the bill as we all have done tonight and disagreed implicitly with your approach.I detest the way the Opposition is playing politics with our tamariki. I absolutely detest the way that you can feel free to kick political balls with our kids. The reality is that if this had been such an important piece of legislation for National—when was this bill introduced? It was May 2017. If this bill was so important to the Opposition that they want to waste our time by making our kids political footballs you could have done it when you were in blimmin Government and we all knew that—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop bringing me into the debate.KIRITAPU ALLAN: I apologise to the Deputy Speaker. The Opposition could have done that when they were in Government. [Interruption]DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order! Can I just remind everyone this is members' day and members are entitled both to have their say and to bring bills to the House.KIRITAPU ALLAN: I absolutely respect the role of this House to debate the nuances of legislation and I absolutely agree with the fundamental proposition that we are going to agree and disagree on matters of legislation but can we please not make our kids the football for political points. I ask that we please not do that.Now let me turn to some of my own personal problems with this piece of legislation. What we always were taught—and I commend my colleague from across the House Harete Hipango. She expressed her experience with the law. We all know as lawyers that the only way that you make decent law is if there is a way of enforcing a piece of legislation. In absence of the ability to enforce a piece of legislation it is but a guideline.Now in 2012 the Ministry of Health under the previous Government introduced some pretty decent guidelines and I commend both sides of the House for I guess agreeing to and supporting those guidelines. Now guidelines we say with the support of the medical profession—we say—are the most appropriate way for dealing with the way in which we enrol our kids.In 2012—I better refer to my notes before I lose my place; I wouldn't want to do that—the Ministry of Health—Hon Member: Well you think you're funny.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Actually no to the member that just spoke—and I won't name her because she's had her fair share of time for making comments on that side of the House that have gone into the media—these aren't funny comments. They are actually not funny comments. These comments that I make actually are on the basis of the fact that I've just come from a tangi over the last six days for a kid that passed away because all too often both sides of this House—and for the last nine years it has been the most vulnerable that have paid the price for arrogance in their attitudes.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can you come back to the bill please?KIRITAPU ALLAN: Absolutely. I turn back to the bill the Newborn Enrolment with General Practice Bill. I do want to applaud the member opposite for the introduction. I think that the intent was absolutely good and I think that remark's been echoed across both sides of the House tonight. I do know from the remarks that I've heard from colleagues that do sit on the Health Committee that the member who introduced this bill has devoted a lot of time and energy to getting this bill to the particular place it is at. We appreciate the passion that she brings to this legislation.I also want to acknowledge my colleague Louisa Wall the chair of the Health Committee and the member opposite Shane Reti the deputy chair. I know that there have been many robust conversations to get this bill to this point. It's been on the books for just over a year—a year and a half I think. That brings us to this point.This side of the House having considered the medical profession's perspective and having considered our midwifery profession have come to the position tonight that we agree with those submissions—the evidence that they've put forward. They say that the guidelines that are in place have been appropriate. Labour also has urged the Ministry of Health to proceed with the following actions to improve timely newborn enrolment without the need for legislation: to introduce two performance measures through district health boards (DHBs) in annual plans—that 55 percent of newborns are enrolled with a general practice by six weeks of age and that 85 percent of newborns are enrolled with a general practice by the age of three months—to continue to work with DHBs to negotiate an appropriate clause in the primary health organisation services agreement requiring timely newborn enrolment and to implement reporting and monitoring via the National Enrolment Service (NES) and ensure NES enrolment information is accessible to authorised providers such as DHBs.So from our side of the House we do again applaud the intent of this bill. We thank the members from across the House for their diligence and for turning their minds to the way in which we most support our children. If I can please applaud all of us—let's look after our kids and let's not make them the focus for political footballs because there's far too many—Hon Jacqui Dean: Ha ha! Ironic.KIRITAPU ALLAN: Ha! There's far too many of our kids that are falling through the cracks because we choose to make them political footballs so we will not be supporting this bill through to the third reading. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."