SpeechHARETE HIPANGO (National): Thank you. I rise as the last speaker for the National Party in support of the second reading of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill. I did not sit on the Health Committee for this but I am able to speak premised on having served as a mental health lawyer and also a district inspector appointed under this Mental Health Act. However it is interesting how over the course of time things eventuate. When I was a candidate for the National Party prior to the 2017 election I went along to the review that had been led by Ron Paterson who was a former law professor of mine was also a former commissioner for health and disability and he happened to lead the review where their report He Ara Oranga: Report of the Government Inquiry into Mental Health and Addiction was released to the public in November 2018. Members of the House and also those who in the public may be listening in this amendment bill is a consequence of that review.The first reading of this bill was on 6 April this year. The second reading commenced on 28 September and it happened to come before the House at the time when it was the week for mental health. People were speaking about the impact of mental health on our lives particularly focused on that week but we know that mental health is not just something that occurs once a week every year; it is a daily incursion for many people and for many it is also an affliction. During these COVID times what isn't reported and it will prevail and play out in time is the impact of what has happened with COVID on people's lives and the mental health consequences that will flow on from that.The purpose of the amendments in this bill are intended to improve the protection of individual rights and the safety of patients in the public. The bill had been drafted and after the first reading it went before the Health Committee where there were 53 written submissions and 15 oral submissions spoken to from people's experiences. Not having had the privilege of listening to that I have had the privilege of engaging with people who have lived with mental disorders and afflictions for a good part of their life. My job as a servant in the legal forum and arena was to advocate and represent the mental health patients and then that in time transitioned to being what was called a district inspector" where the requirement of district inspectors as lawyers was an oversight view to ensure legal compliance with the law. That is touched on in part by the amendment to this in terms of reporting—the reporting provisions and the transparency of ensuring that there is accountability in what comes about by way of these amendments.The amendments as had been outlined by Minister Little when he addressed the House at the second reading is that the bill proposes to amend the key factors of eliminating indefinite treatment orders. Now when we talk about indefinite treatment orders those are compulsory treatment orders where the patients are compulsorily as opposed to voluntarily detained in a mental health facility. The sequence was that an application would be made and if the evidence was in support of establishing a mental disorder under the requirements of the Act an order would be made for an initial period of six months it would come back for review and then would have another six months if the court was satisfied based on the clinicians' evidence the psychiatric evidence that a compulsory treatment order was required to sustain for another six months then after that it would go into an indefinite period of time. This law will ensure that there is accountability by requiring that it is a definite period of time of six months plus six months plus 12 months not indefinitely. In the day again for the practitioners of mental health if we were seeking that indefinite status to be dispensed with it would require an application for what was called a "section 76 review" under the Act. However that would seldom not often occur because the patients who were under the affliction of a mental disorder were struggling on a day-by-day basis just to cope with living and the last thing on their mind was to apply for a dispensing of that compulsory treatment order. So this amendment to the Act will go about dealing with that.There is also a provision there that deals with minimising the risk of harm for the transportation of special patients. A special patient is a patient who has been deemed legally by the court as not meeting the mental competency and therefore are deemed to be either unfit of mind and not having the legal propensity to be able to make decisions—deemed otherwise insane. Those special patients are always placed into what is called the criminal section of a mental health unit which is the forensic unit. So this deals with the transportation of the forensic patients who are special patients from the facility that they are detained in to the court arena for the hearing. It deems that the contracting of the transportation can be to another Government agent—often those will be corrections officers or police who are trained in it—where our health service providers are compromised by time to be able to do that.Another amendment of course is removing the sunset provision which is deemed a technical amendment which had been imposed during the COVID-stricken times for the hearing of these mental health matters to be not by physical presence but by the audiovisual links. So these are practical amendments that are being proposed within this bill.It is interesting also that the bill as had been drafted presented to the Health Committee on scrutiny and after hearing submissions from those persons who have been affected by the imposition of the Mental Health Act giving their contribution that is relevant the Health Committee decided also to make some adjustments to the bill as had been drafted and presented to them. So that has been outlined by a report that had been submitted by the select committee to the House. And again that touches on the use of audiovisual links the practicality of that for patient assessments and for any court determinations. The member across the House talked about in other jurisdictions the fact that AVLs—the audiovisual links—have become a matter of standard practice now in this day of technology where there may be bail applications heard from counsel on behalf of prisoners who are no longer required subject to certain circumstances or conditions being satisfied for them to be transported out of town to a court house. The audiovisual links are a practicality and they facilitate the application and the due process of the law that meets with the needs of the person who is required to make those appearances and be accountable to the courts. So there are those practicalities.The Health Committee also talked about the monitoring of the use of that with requirement of reports to the director of mental health. It hadn't been touched on in the select committee that that is what the lawyers appointed to the specialist role as district inspectors—our role was to go into the mental health units. I travelled to most of the mental health units within the North Island and our purpose was to ensure legal compliance by the health practitioners and psychiatrists with the detention of the mentally disordered patients and that we would report any anomalies or inconsistencies. So the Health Committee has reported the requirement that this would be covered by the directors of area mental health services and also the director of the Ministry of Health. But just to say that these are areas that district inspectors will look out for and that is what they are required to do.So this is an appropriate bill before the House as I say supported by the National Party. We are a party that recognises due process and the importance of addressing the needs of our vulnerable within the community. It is very fair to say endorsing my colleague Ian McKelvie that mental health and our people who are afflicted by that has become more of a regularity in these COVID-stricken times and this proposed law and amendment is practical it makes sense and in saying that I totally support and commend the bill to the House."