Heatley Phil: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Heatley Phil: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:878] 
PHIL HEATLEY (National—Whangarei) 
: 
 It is good to see that senior members still get the call in the House and I thank you for calling me Mr Deputy Speaker. I too would like to reflect on the concerns that the Veterinary Association and the Veterinary Council had—concerns that they certainly expressed to members of the Primary Production Committee during its proceedings and post-proceedings during the election campaign—that this bill pass through the House before Christmas. They saw a degree of urgency in the need to embark on new registration criteria in the new year rather than let them lapse for 18 months or 2 years after all the work that has been done. 
We are cutting it very fine but people within the Veterinary Council and the Veterinary Association will be celebrating the passing of this legislation this evening. They want to use the registration changes it contains in the new year rather than waiting another 18 months or 2 years because they see the changes and the conclusion of this bill as very satisfactory indeed. They had a large amount of input and we thank the people who came before the select committee to contribute. 
 The bill was referred to the Primary Production Committee at the beginning of this year. The period for making submissions was just over a month. There were not too many submissions but they were substantial. We heard eight out of 10 in person and as the Hon David Carter indicated to the House we worked quite hard with both the council and the association during deliberations to make sure we got it right. We received advice from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and we thank the ministry for that. I also acknowledge other members in the House who worked on this bill. 
In terms of the substance of the legislation it generally achieves three major things. First of all the qualification requirements for veterinarians are put down clearly for all to see. The registration processes and categories for veterinarians are also stipulated in the legislation and the disciplinary powers of the Veterinary Council of New Zealand are also outlined. There is much more clarity on the way through those registration qualification and disciplinary proceedings and what has to take place. 
One of the big issues that we had to work on quite hard was actually the definition of what a veterinarian was. We had to recommend that the definition of “veterinarian” in clause 4 be amended to make sure that a veterinarian is in fact a registered person who holds a practising certificate. Why that is so important is that we need to protect the brand. The Hon David Carter already outlined the amount of respect that New Zealand - trained veterinarians have throughout the world. We also need to make sure that practising New Zealand veterinarians are respected throughout the world. The reason for this is no more than the needs of overseas countries when often they call on New Zealand expertise. We saw evidence of that in Britain last year when the foot-and-mouth scare hit. The British were burning stock investigating stock and isolating stock and they called on New Zealand veterinarians to consult with and work with their staff. We need to protect the brand. There is no doubt now under this legislation that a veterinarian is a registered person who holds a current practising certificate and that protects our good veterinarians in this country and abroad. 
In stating that I have to point out that we had to recommend an amendment. I refer members to clause 30AA “Interpretation” which makes it clear that when there are complaints or disciplinary hearings the Veterinary Council can haul before it veterinarians who did not hold a current practising certificate. In other words the fact that one’s practising certificate had lapsed does not mean that a veterinarian cannot be held accountable for poor practice on the day when he or she was carrying the practising certificate and was registered. 
So if members turn to clause 30AA they will see that it states: “In this Part specified person—(a) means a veterinarian or a person who was a veterinarian at the time of the relevant conduct; and (b) unless the context otherwise requires includes—(i) a registered person: (ii) a registered person whose registration is suspended: (iii) a person who was registered at the time of the relevant conduct.” That means that no veterinarians who find themselves the subject of an investigation in relation to poor conduct or poor practice can say that they are not accountable to the disciplinary procedures because they are no longer registered or were not registered at the time or do not currently hold a practising certificate. So we have tidied up that loophole in the definitions. I am pleased that that will actually give the council the ability to take disciplinary action against a person if he or she continues to practise after their practising certificate has lapsed. They should not be doing that and they will be held accountable. 
We also had to deal with a second major issue and that was to do with the limited registration criteria. We wanted to remove the time limits in relation to how long a person may hold limited registration. Currently temporary registration is able to be gained for 3 months and it can be extended to 6 months—that is under the 1994 Act. The Minister wanted to change that so that limited registration may be applied for for 12 months with an extension of a further 12 months. The reason we are now removing the time constraints—we would prefer obviously to have temporary registration and then vets coming under the full registration fairly quickly—is that we need to provide incentives to attract and retain overseas veterinary specialists in New Zealand. Just like every other professional area in this country we are seeing young New Zealanders train and then going overseas. 
The New Zealand taxpayer is paying for the training of architects engineers veterinarians as we see here doctors nurses and professional engineers such as myself—I stay only to serve this country. All of them are trained in this country and they are being driven overseas by high taxes high compliance costs and the degree of political correctness that hounds them daily in their professional lives—all those sorts of things. They are being driven overseas by all the taxes costs and political correctness and it is no different for veterinarians. We had to change this clause and allow for limited registration in order to provide the incentive for overseas-trained veterinarians to come to New Zealand and stay and replace the fleeing hordes of young 20 to 25-year-old New Zealanders who are running over to Australia and the UK to set up a better life and we are planning for 2008 when they will return to New Zealand to go to the ticker-tape parade in Queen Street to welcome a National-led Government. So that is what they are doing. They are overseas and they will be there for 3 years saving some money for that ticker-tape parade. 
So we have open-ended the limited registration period instead of restricting it for 12 months to attract and retain these overseas veterinary specialists. There were some problems. We had concerns from the New Zealand Food Safety Authority which saw this as possibly creating incentives for people to reduce costs by employing veterinarians with limited registration and we acknowledge that. But what can we do? What can we do if young New Zealanders are being driven overseas by high taxes and political correctness and are being hounded by compliance costs every day in their professional lives? There is nothing else we can do. We are subject to that phenomenon—we have seen for the last 6 years—and all we can do is extend the limited registration provisions and we have done so. 
We also looked at the rights of appeal of vets and complainants. My colleagues will expand on that particular issue and I know that members are looking forward to hearing something of a dissertation on that.