Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Madam Speaker. It's a real pleasure to rise and speak on the third and final reading of this bill. As my colleague Matt Doocey said there was really good cross-party support on this bill because of the importance that organ donation means to people's lives.I think—just again reflecting on what my colleague Marja Lubeck was saying about that whole transformation it can make in somebody's life—for many having an organ donated is lifesaving. It makes that difference between life and death. For others it just transforms their life because they're not having to rely on dialysis or other things that basically limit their quality of life. So it's incredibly incredibly important that we get this right. Basically at the moment there's a real waiting list for organ donation and on average about 550 people waiting at any one time for an organ. So it's incredibly important that we raise the profile of organ donation and make sure that for people that are happy to donate—either basically by putting something on their driver's licence or for people that they can get a match with as a live donor—that process is facilitated.So there is a national strategy for increasing deceased organ donation and transplantation and Part 2 of this bill looks at how we can create that oversight and the governance for this by creating an entity within the New Zealand Blood Service renaming that the New Zealand Blood and Organ Service and giving them the governance role for looking at the oversight of organ donation and also supporting organ transplantation in our country.At the Health Committee there was quite a bit of discussion because many people thought that if they put something on their driver's licence that said donor" that was it—that basically you automatically became an organ donor. But the actual practicalities of the situation are that in that situation usually the discussion has been happening at the ICU level and it's usually between grieving family members having to make a really tough call. But it's also about the health professionals that are guiding the family through those decisions. And so there was quite a bit of discussion again at select committee and in some of the submissions about the need for training and support of those health professionals to lead those conversations often at an incredibly difficult time in families' lives and to actually explain the benefits of donation but also making sure those conversations happen at the right point for that family in their decision making. It's having basically an entity that can oversee that process and make sure that we're looking at implementing the strategy—what the strategy looks at is raising the profile of organ donation so that people not only put something on their driver's licence but they also have that conversation with the family so their family knows somebody's intent and are not having to think about that at an incredibly stressful time—but also looking at effective clinical governance looking at training and having that oversight so that we do actually know what we're aiming for and making sure our health professionals in that situation have the adequate resourcing and training. So it's really important in terms of Part 2 of that bill just to put in place that critical infrastructure to make sure that can happen. Part 1 of the bill though looks at live donors and compensation. Up until now we did have compensation for live donors and it could go up to 12 weeks but it was an all-or-nothing thing where somebody basically had donor surgery and then if they wanted to go back to work their compensation ceased. For many people you might want to take a more gradual approach in terms of getting back to work. One of our submitters raised a scenario where a close relative had donated a kidney to him and then they ended up with an unexpected infection and so that really knocked them back for quite a few weeks. There's a whole range of scenarios where somebody may want to go back to work part-time or they may go back to work and then they realise "OK I need some more time." So what this bill does is allows that flexibility where you can go back part-time or you can actually go back and then if you need to you can get further compensation up to that 12-week period. So it just makes it that little bit easier for people to consider that donation process.Just one of the other things before I close is just looking at some of the scenarios where we've got overseas paired exchanges in terms of organ donation and thinking about how we make sure that the legislation keeps up with that. Up until now you could only get that compensation if the surgery happened in New Zealand for both the donor and the recipient and also if that person receiving the transplant was eligible for publicly funded health services. What this does is it changes it so that we can actually accommodate the fact that you might actually be part of a paired organ donation programme that's been approved. So what the bill does is it allows for that and also creates a schedule that then lists approved paired organ donation exchange programmes. So the Australia and New Zealand Paired Kidney Exchange Program has been added to Schedule 5 so that that then comes in in terms of when you're considering eligibility in the criteria.Basically this is an important bill and I think it's got the potential to put that framework in place that will increase the number of people that are making those donations and then the follow-on effect is having that impact on people's lives.I just want to close by reading you a quote from Lisa who basically on the Organ Donation New Zealand website had told her story. She just said after her transplant: "I've never felt more alive than I do today. I've been liberated from the battle of breathlessness and absorb every moment I have with my daughter with immense pleasure. I work full time in a vibrant energetic environment and miraculously I can breathe big deep oxygen filled life-giving breaths. Thank you would never be enough.""