Hague Kevin: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHague Kevin: New Zealand Public Health and Disability (Southern DHB) Elections Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 10 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10945. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KEVIN HAGUE (Green): I could certainly listen to Simon O’Connor make that speech several times over. I am pleased he made that contribution again. I would like to urge the National Party to use Simon O’Connor in the election campaign because I think that message that democracy is not necessarily well-served by voting will be one that really resonates with the New Zealand public.This bill is fundamentally about the suspension of rights in this case civil and political rights. In this contribution I want to talk about another sort of rights and that is the rights of Māori guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi. Section 4 of the New Zealand Public Health and Disability Act provides that district health boards must “recognise and respect the principles of the Treaty” with a view to improving Māori health outcomes and it specifies the functions of contributing to decision making and delivery of health services. That talk of principles—there are various interpretations of what those principles are. There is the “three Ps” idea—partnership participation and protection—or there is Justice Somers’ construction that actually says that the principles must not only include all of what is included in the articles of the Treaty but go beyond that to the central ideas that underpin those articles as well.But actually regardless of which of those we choose the inevitable conclusion must be that the Treaty demands under article 2 that Māori are present and contributing to joint decision-making at the top table of an entity like a district health board. That is actually what the statute says. I notice that the Minister of Health is yet to answer any of the questions that have been asked although possibly Todd Barclay was representing him in his contribution.In his second reading speech the Minister indicated that the Treaty issues that had been raised—concerns about the effect of suspension of section 4 of the Act in this case—would be met by the commissioner providing for Māori participation at advisory committee level. Like the concerns I raised in my earlier contribution about that being an inadequate mechanism for meeting the transparency requirement that the people of the southern district had expressed representation at the advisory committee level is not an adequate way for the responsibility of the Crown through the Southern District Health Board to be met. The Crown will be failing its statutory and ethical responsibility to honour the Treaty whether we are talking about articles or principles.What is required here is for the Minister of Health instead to act. I do not believe that the Minister’s right to instruct district health boards has been in any way changed by his appointment of commissioners; he may still instruct. So whether he includes a proper Treaty provision in the bill before the Committee of the whole House right now or he commits now to using his power to instruct to require that the Southern District Health Board will in fact step up to the mark and incorporate iwi representation mana whenua representation at that top level amongst that group of commissioners—either way is satisfactory but to do neither is unsatisfactory. It fails the statutory test. I will leave it there Mr Chair and thank you very much for the opportunity to make another contribution.