van Velden Brooke; Salesa JennyBROOKE VAN VELDEN (Deputy Leader—ACT): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to take a call on behalf of the ACT Party on the title and commencement clauses. This bill should not be called the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill. I've got two options for what this bill should be called.Number one we should rename this bill to be called the Co-governance Bill" because that's what it is. This health reform is not a health reform; it is an exercise in co-governance rather than in health needs and better health outcomes for New Zealanders. The second amendment that I would make to this is to call it the "Democracy is Different in New Zealand Bill" because that is what the Ministers in this Chamber have said. They've said publicly that democracy is different in New Zealand. I think that's a disgrace and it should be front and centre. Rather than being called the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill it actually should say what it is: that this Government doesn't believe that healthcare should be put at the centre of our health reform; co-governance should be put at the centre of our health reform. This bill should have asked the question: how do we get better access to more treatments to more New Zealanders faster? This bill is adding bureaucracy to our healthcare system. It will make it harder for New Zealanders to get access to healthcare because it's focusing on the wrong problem. It's focused on co-governance and changing the definition of democracy in New Zealand rather than on focusing on patients.Now the ACT Party put forward three amendments to this legislation and we're happy to see that the Government has taken up one of them and that was an amendment in my name for a rural health strategy. I want to congratulate the Minister for recognising at the last minute that he had forgotten about rural New Zealand and forgotten about the rural population's health needs. I think it's important that the rural health strategy was put in this bill and I hope it goes some way to acknowledging the difficulties that rural New Zealanders face getting adequate health outcomes and adequate health access.One aspect that I think has been missed over is the need for a medicines strategy. That was another amendment that we put forward tonight. The Pharmac final review came back and said that for Pharmac to be truly integrated into the new health system there was a desperate need for a medicines strategy to underpin it. Now we had this amendment ready to go the Minister could have taken it up and it's a shame he didn't. I think he didn't take it up because like he forgot about rural New Zealand he forgot about patients and forgot about medicines access. You cannot reform the healthcare sector if you don't talk about medicines access. It's shameful in New Zealand. We have hundreds of people who don't get adequate care and don't get the funding for the drugs that they need to live long productive and healthy lives. We can and we should do better and that's why I think it's important that we should have had a medicines strategy.We also had an amendment to remove the Māori Health Authority and that goes back to why I think this bill should be called the "Co-governance Bill" or the "Democracy is Different in New Zealand Bill" because we are going down a divisive path of going through the three waters reforms the healthcare reforms and putting in place divisive policies that base people in New Zealand on their race rather than on their needs and rather than on good structures and I think that's shameful. So I hope anybody would support me in saying that this bill shouldn't be called the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill; it's should be called the "Co-governance Bill" or the "Democracy is Different in New Zealand Bill". We need more transparency about what this Government is actually doing. We need to put patients back at the heart of the healthcare sector. We need better medicines access for more people faster. We need better treatments for more New Zealanders faster. We need to look out for those rural New Zealanders who are so often overlooked by this Government and I am proud that the ACT Party forced the Government into putting the rural health strategy at the heart of this legislation.CHAIRPERSON (Hon Jenny Salesa): I call on Joseph Mooney although I warn you that this will be a very short call because I have to report progress at five to 10."