Hague KevinKEVIN HAGUE (Green): I would like to begin by thanking you Mr Speaker for accepting this call for an urgent debate. It is hard to imagine a situation more serious than that that is unfolding in Havelock North currently and one more deserving of an urgent debate in this House. The Green Party's sympathies and support naturally are extended to those people in Havelock North and the surrounding area who have been affected by this campylobacter outbreak. The numbers themselves are sobering reading. Already more than 2000 people are ill from what actually is a very serious illness more than 20 are hospitalised two people are currently critically ill and one person is possibly already dead from the disease. It is a grave situation. It is entirely appropriate that at this point the focus of those on the ground in the Hawke's Bay and in the Ministry of Health should be on ensuring appropriate and speedy treatment for those who have been affected by the outbreak on ensuring that the water supply is safe and on ensuring that people have access to reliable information and the kind of practical support that they need when they need it. That is appropriate to be the initial focus. I have been impressed in the last day or so by the leadership that I have seen from Lawrence Yule as the Mayor of Hastings District and Dr Nick Jones the medical officer of health for the Hawke's Bay—a reliable man. I have not been so impressed by the silence that I have heard from the Minister of Health. This is an issue that although it is unfolding at a local level has national repercussions. I believe that New Zealanders around the country many of whom rely on water supplies similar to that in Havelock North needed to have heard from the Minister before now. I appreciate the comments that Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga has just made in the House. Perhaps the silence has resulted from the Minister himself the Hon Jonathan Coleman being away from his post and Sam Lotu-Iiga stepping in to cover the role. That may well be the case. It is inevitable that people in Hawke's Bay are going to have some deep and important questions. How did the contamination occur? How was the contamination allowed to occur? In other words why and how did the systems designed to keep drinking water safe fail? Could the warning have been sounded earlier? We have heard appropriately from the Hon Annette King that there was at least a day's delay between a positive sample being found and anyone being told. Did we need to have that day? If we had not had that day could infections have been prevented? At this stage I want to be very careful not to jump to conclusions about the answers to any of those questions. Some speculation is inevitable and I am reading about it in the news media but the Green Party does not want to go there. But when we do come to investigate those questions the Green Party will be looking to ensure that the investigation that occurs is as robust and independent as it possibly can be. Rather than an investigation that is commissioned by the Hastings District Council with some support from the Ministry of Health we will want to see that investigation being led nationally and being properly independent. We will want to see the involvement of appropriate experts such as Professor Michael Baker and such as Professor Nigel French. And we want to ensure—and this is one of the reasons why we would want such an investigation to be national in its focus and scope—that whatever is learnt about what has gone wrong and about improving water safety in Havelock North is applied not only in Hawke's Bay but around the country. The Hon Annette King has drawn attention to the Sanitary Works Subsidy Scheme having its funding cut by this Government. That is an issue that I know has affected many many rural communities around the country. We do not say that that has played a role in this particular disaster but it is an issue that we would want to see canvassed in such an inquiry. We note that with climate change and its growing impacts we are likely to be seeing an increase in the frequency of heavy rain events and an increase in the frequency of severe flooding events and with those we are likely to see an increase in outbreaks of water-borne illness around the country. It is essential therefore that as a Parliament and as a nation we do what we can to ensure that the systems that are designed to keep our drinking water safe are robust and reliable and up to that challenge. The name John Snow is one that different groups of people will probably recognise for different reasons. Some will think immediately of Game of Thrones; others will think of the prestigious newscaster. In my interests in life I immediately think of course of John Snow the fantastic England fast bowler of the 1960s. But epidemiologists and all of those who have studied public health will think back to their very first lecture in epidemiology because in 1854 John Snow a physician in London mapped an outbreak of cholera and by doing so was able to trace the source of that outbreak to a public water pump in Broad Street in what is now Soho in London. What happened next is somewhat apocryphal. Having traced the outbreak to that water pump and receiving no response from the proper authorities to his having done so Dr Snow went and removed the handle from the Broad Street pump thereby preventing the further spread of cholera in Soho and London. Drinking water is so ubiquitous in our lives that we have perhaps become blasé about its importance about its preciousness and about the impact it has on our communities when things go wrong. But following the inquiry into what has gone wrong in Havelock North I expect this Government to take the action that is equivalent to John Snow and the handle of the Broad Street pump and to act decisively to ensure that this kind of outbreak cannot happen again in New Zealand. Thank you.