Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hutchison Paul: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2007. Volume:642;Page:11713. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
12.  
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
 to the  
Minister for Disability Issues 
: Is she satisfied with the quality of care provided by Spectrum Care Trust to Guy Tuffin? 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Minister for Disability Issues) 
: 
 No. I agree with the spokesperson for the Ministry of Health who has described his care as deplorable and abhorrent. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: When did she first become aware of allegations regarding the abuse of Guy Tuffin and what action did she take at that time to ensure he received adequate care? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: As the member knows—because he has used that line of questioning many times in both written and oral questions—I do not have any ministerial portfolio for the operational matters within the Ministry of Health. Therefore those questions should appropriately be directed to the Minister of Health. I am happy to answer any question for which I have a ministerial portfolio but I have no responsibility for any operational issues within the Ministry of Health. 
Russell Fairbrother 
: Why have successive Governments pursued deinstitutionalisation and in general has the policy worked? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: Deinstitutionalisation is about ensuring that disabled people can live in their own communities and do the day-to-day things that most of us take for granted which is a key aim of the New Zealand Disability Strategy. As to whether it has worked I have yet to meet any New Zealander who wants to be returned to live in an institution. They do not want to go back. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: How could she possibly not accept any responsibility in her role as Minister for Disability Issues where she is supposed to be an advocate for disabled people when an intellectually disabled blind man was allegedly kicked and dragged across a rugby field by those employed to care for him in 2005; and why was the same man a year later subjected to cold showers and isolation and forced to sleep on a faeces-covered mattress for 3 weeks? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: The member actually knows the answers to his questions because they have been the subject of an inquiry by the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner which is the appropriate organisation to investigate those complaints and make recommendations—recommendations that the provider and the Ministry of Health are then obliged under the Health and Disability Commissioner’s legislation to implement. 
Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. I ask you to consider very carefully whether it is reasonable for a Minister to answer by saying that member knows the answer. Surely there is a reason for questions being answered. It is found under Standing Order 371. Ministers should give an answer consistent with the public good—one would assume the public interest. Therefore perhaps the Minister should be invited to elaborate a little bit and give the House the answer that she believes Dr Hutchison may already have. 
Madam SPEAKER 
: I think that is exactly what the Minister did and having said that she then went on to address the question. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: Is the quality of care provided to Guy Tuffin what people can expect under this Government or is this just an isolated case? 
Hon RUTH DYSON 
: I was delighted to read at the conclusion of David Fisher’s article on the gentleman to whom the member refers—and whom I actually prefer not to have publicly named because he did not have a choice over Dr Hutchison putting his name out into the public—that his current living arrangements are more than satisfactory to the point that he was described as happy and laughing. That is the level of support he is entitled to receive. It is not what he received from the previous provider which I described in my answer to the primary question as abhorrent. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: I seek leave to table a report by the deputy Health and Disability Commissioner released on 9 September that describes breaches of the consumer code of rights— 
Document not tabled. 
Dr Paul Hutchison 
: I seek leave to table an article by David Fisher on 2 September from  
Herald on Sunday 
— 
Madam SPEAKER 
: Leave is sought to table that article. Is there any objection? Yes there is objection.