8. Question No. 8—HealthDr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Associate Minister of HealthQuestion No. 8—Health8. Dr SHANE RETI (National—Whangarei) to the Associate Minister of Health: What communications if any were there from the World Health Organization to the Government this year regarding the emergence of measles in New Zealand? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER (Associate Minister of Health): I am advised that there have been two letters received from the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as two receipts—acknowledgments—of communications from our Ministry of Health about the measles outbreaks in New Zealand. For the benefit of the member I will table these letters forthwith. I seek leave to table correspondence from the World Health Organization to the Government received on 9 April 2019 and 2 May 2019. SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that? There appears to be none. They will be tabled. Documents by leave laid on the Table of the House. Dr Shane Reti: Does she stand by her answer to written questions that she will not release the contents of the letter from the WHO in April warning of measles because it is not in the public interest? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: Well I just tabled the contents of those letters here in the House today but I do stand by the answer which said it was not in the public interest due to the administrative work required to answer the over 400 written parliamentary questions that I've received from that member in just the last few months. Dr Shane Reti: Do contents of the letter from the WHO that were not in the public interest contain any recommendations to counter measles outbreaks that were not taken up by the Government at the time? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: No. Dr Shane Reti: Did the WHO letter recommend preparing for extra measles vaccines? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: The member will be able to read the letter because I've just tabled it and the details of it are nine recommendations from the World Health Organization that the ministry absolutely responded to—in fact we were already in the midst of carrying out before the letter was received. Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I think it would be a bit odd if the House was to accept that a Minister can answer a question by tabling a letter minutes or seconds in this case before the answer and saying that that provides the answer. Surely the question should stand as it has been considered for the last three hours? SPEAKER: OK OK. The Minister is of course able to do that; we take into account the disadvantage that it places Dr Shane Reti in as a result of that in allowing some flexibility in his questions. While he is disadvantaged he is generally pretty nimble and I'm certain that he will adjust his question line from now on in order to take into account the fact that the letter's been tabled—in fact I think that after the first supplementary he did. Dr Shane Reti: What part of the letter did she think was not in the public interest to release? Hon JULIE ANNE GENTER: As I said earlier given the over 400 written parliamentary questions that I've received in the last few months from the member I did not consider it in the public interest and it's not standard practice to release the contents of letters through questions for written answers. That's why I've tabled the letters in full here in the House so members can see them.