Sage EugenieHon EUGENIE SAGE (Minister of Conservation): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. The Green Party is very pleased to support the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill. The Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Act ensures that there are 16 responsible authorities which provide oversight of the competence and safety of 23 health professions including medicine nursing physiotherapy pharmistry dentistry and midwifery. So as other speakers have noted this bill in amending that principal Act is ensuring that we have a very good health system and that those health professionals are competent and fit to practise their profession.So the bill's about clarifying the interpretation of the principal Act and improving its operation. It was interesting just in terms of reading around the bill the fact that in other jurisdictions like the United Kingdom there is more oversight of these responsible authorities than there is in New Zealand. So the changes that the bill is making are ensuring as Minister Clark noted that the public can have confidence in our health system because some of the changes are about ensuring greater transparency requiring those responsible authorities to ensure that there are provisions around the naming of practitioners who may be up in front of a disciplinary committee. As the Hon Nicky Wagner noted the bill also enables people to make complaints directly; that also increases transparency. The bill provides requirements around where a medical practitioner has received a conviction. Then there are provisions that the responsible authority has to deal with that either by referral to a disciplinary tribunal or there are some other mechanisms by ordering that health professional to undertake medical examination or counselling for drug issues suspending the practising certificate.There's a requirement in the bill that the responsible authorities set standards of cultural competence ensuring that our health system and practitioners respond to the diverse needs of all members of our community. There's a requirement which my colleague the Hon Julie Anne Genter has commented on in previous readings around ensuring that practitioners provide data to the responsible authorities and that assists in workforce planning. If those sorts of provisions had been in the Act earlier it may have assisted in preventing the shortages of practitioners in professions like midwifery for example. So that is a very good initiative in enabling more workforce planning. As the Minister noted the importance of having the different disciplines—practitioners across the different health sectors nursing physiotherapy and their like—having these responsible authorities work together more. The bill promotes that as well.So it's about ensuring that the responsible authorities are looking outward to the public to ensure that the public is confident in those practitioners rather than looking inward to the professions themselves. It is about ensuring that the legislation responds to changes in the different health professions that the principal Act is amended in a timely way and that the public can have confidence in all of those health professionals. So I commend the bill to the House. The Green Party's very pleased to support it.