Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8071] 
JUDITH COLLINS (NZ National—Clevedon) 
: 
 We have several concerns about this bill and in particular I would like to take up the cudgels again on behalf of the health professionals who would like to be called “health professionals” rather than simply “health practitioners”. That is because this bill in its definitions does not actually say what professional competence is. Why should those people who have been professionals all their lives and wish to be treated as such now have their activities restricted and defined by the Minister of Health? Health practitioners such as occupational therapists might wish to be covered by this bill but those professionals who have had a long history of being part of a profession and of defining their own scopes of practice as such of actually knowing who should be practising in what areas and what areas should be practised in by their particular professions want to be treated as professionals and to be accepted as professionals. They do not want to become simply puppets of a Minister of Health who can decide for instance that perhaps obstetricians should not now be delivering babies if it does not suit her scheme of things. 
That is the sort of nonsense that this bill would allow. That must not be the case because at the end of the day the people who are the best qualified to say what their particular professions are qualified to do are the professionals themselves not the Minister of Health who might or might not decide to actually go away and take notice of the consultation process that has been put in place. 
One thing we know after years of being consulted on things is that members of the public know that the consultation process referred to in this particular part of the bill means nothing. We all know that when this particular Government goes out to consult it goes out to consult with an agenda and that agenda has nothing to do with really finding out what people think. It goes out to say: “This is what we are going to do. If you’ve got an objection now is your chance. We won’t take any notice of you but that’s too bad—we’ve said we’ve consulted.” That is what this Government does and this bill is simply another example of it. 
It is appalling that the main health professional regulators have come out and said they no longer support this bill. The reason is that they do not want to be controlled by this Minister of Health. These people who have spent years and years of their lives training and years and years working as professionals for the betterment of the community for their patients are being told that they will not decide what they are competent in. No their professional bodies will no longer be qualified to do that. This Minister of Health with her massive qualifications in the area will tell them what they can do. That is appalling. 
I would like now to look at the area of punishments for people who work outside their scopes of practice. I am concerned about situations in which some people feel they need to help others in a medical way but it is not in their areas of practice. There is a clause in the bill that says: “Well we won’t prosecute you if it’s an emergency.” But what about the situation when the medical person happens to be someone out in the backblocks somewhere in rural New Zealand—which I know is something this Government knows nothing about—and somebody needs some medical attention. It might not be considered an emergency but for the person concerned it might become an emergency if he or she is not treated. [ 
Interruption 
] In respect of that member over there Jill Pettis I recall that she used to be a nurse at one stage in her life so why is she not taking a call? Is it because she too like the Maori caucus has been silenced by this Government? Is she too being told to be quiet? Well we can all understand that can we not because who would want to see the paint being stripped off the walls by that particular member? 
That is what happens. This Government does not want to hear from the people. It does not even want to hear from its own people and it certainly does not want to hear from the health professionals.