SpeechHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin): Thank you Mr Speaker. Today I want to bring what is for me an incredibly important local issue to the House. It's one that has occupied a great deal of my time as a representative first for nine years as the member of Parliament for Dunedin North and it continues to be an issue that has occupied much of my mental and other energies in my time representing Dunedin. And it's one that I know my colleagues from Dunedin and the surrounding electorates also continue to fight for the best outcomes for and that is the Dunedin Hospital rebuild. It's now a $1.68 billion hospital rebuild project—the biggest ever hospital build in New Zealand's history—and everyone agrees that it's necessary.I want to remind the House briefly at the outset how it has come to pass that this project is where it is and it really kicked off a long time ago when there was asbestos in the roof when the operating theatres were leaking. Everybody agreed something needed to be done. I can remember asking then Minister of Health Tony Ryall in 2014 why there was so much delay in progressing planning for a rebuild why there was no money set aside and so I petitioned. I campaigned in 2014 and 2017 on a hospital rebuild for the people of Dunedin and was in the fortunate position then in 2017 as the Minister of Health to carry that project into Cabinet to get the initial $1.2 billion set aside to get the sites secured. Much like the Mayo Clinic it's recognised that part of the medical training magic in Dunedin is that people can teach they can research they can operate in an operating theatre they can go and grab coffee they can get to a green space they can collaborate with academic colleagues all within walking distance. That is part of the magic that needed to be preserved and so dictated the local site.Then along came Pete Hodgson as the local advisory group chair and I want to acknowledge all of Pete's work over the years. I want to acknowledge the clinicians right from the outset—the likes of David Perez an oncologist of some note; psychiatrist John Adams; all of those in the clinical area who have driven this project from the outset to make sure that Dunedin and the Otago-Southland region get the very best possible health outcomes. We deserve it in the South we deserve the best health outcomes and we deserve the most modern hospital in the country.It will be a state-of-the-art hospital when it's completed. Concerns have arisen late last year about some of the cost savings and I want to briefly address those and also pay tribute to the local MPs who fought to make sure again that the interests locally were well served. Rachel Brooking has written articles for the newspaper on this. Ingrid Leary has been outspoken on this issue too; so too Rino Tirikatene and Liz Craig. They have all joined together to make sure that this project moves along in a constructive way working with the Minister to make sure that the clinical outcomes that are at the core of this project have been at the heart of decision making around additional funding that has come through. And again there was an extra $110 million late last year; there was another $10 million recently as Ayesha Verrall addressed some of the concerns that had been raised.So it is a huge project. There is ongoing work. There is a review around mental health beds. There's a review around space for pathology. There's recently been $97 million in additional funding coming through for data and digital infrastructure because it will be the most modern state-of-the-art hospital in the country and so it jolly well should be.So I want to also say thank you to Dr Ayesha Verrall. On her second day as Minister of Health she showed up in Dunedin—actually because of the way ministerial writs are handed over it was actually her first full day in the job—recognising local concerns. She came back soon after Easter and announced changes and it really is something of a credit to her as a Minister that she immediately identified the issue stood up and said I'm going to own this and I am going to find a solution that addresses the real clinical concerns that sit behind it." and I want to acknowledge and thank her for that.I do also want to acknowledge my successor Rachel Brooking who will be the Labour candidate in the upcoming election and the leadership that she is showing in taking this cause forward: questioning how we are going to make sure we have the adequate training and attraction for the necessary health professionals in the future; asking the question about the critical interprofessional learning centre that will be built—how that's going to be progressed and where the funding is coming from. This is an amazing project. It'll be much bigger and better than the old one: 70000 square metres in the old site 90000 in the new; 367 beds in the old 410 in the new. It is a bigger better state-of-the-art hospital and I'm very proud to have been associated with it."