Nimon Katie; Kuriger BarbaraPAE ORA (HEALTHY FUTURES) (IMPROVING MENTAL HEALTH OUTCOMES) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingKATIE NIMON (National—Napier): I move That the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) (Improving Mental Health Outcomes) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Health Committee to consider the bill.I might take the first moment if I can to acknowledge the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle a year on from its devastating impact in 2023. I started the day in Wairoa in the heart of my electorate in a hīkoi with the community commemorating what has happened what has happened since collecting taonga along the way and coming together as a community to celebrate that. It was a very very emotional time. I then travelled back to Napier to join in the commemoration there as well; equally emotional. I just want to acknowledge in fitting with this bill the mental health impact of that cyclone and many other devastating weather impacts around the country that we've had in the last year.Mental health is an invisible pain that a lot of people deal with. So I just want to acknowledge everybody that has gone through a huge amount of loss—whether it's physical loss to their homes or loss of loved ones. So I just want to take that time to acknowledge that and at the same time what has been done to make a big difference in people's lives whether it's mental health physical health and the fixing of all matter of things that we can do for that community.To talk about this amendment bill is really important. It's something that we really shouldn't have to be doing. This member's bill came about because the addition of mental health – specific features of the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill were not included at the time that it was passed. But this amendment bill is a step towards where we need to be in mental health in New Zealand. The fact that we need to mandate consideration of mental health and strategic planning in the health sector is a very sad but true fact that we have to deal with at the moment.This amendment bill—as hopefully everybody has read—aims to have the Minister enforced to have strategic planning for mental health and wellbeing as part of health planning and strategy. The reason that's so important is that today in 2024 mental health is not on an equal footing with physical health. If we don't lead from the top as a Government nobody else will.We are still in a time where we treat mental health as an ambulance at the bottom of the cliff" issue. Sensitively I will raise that I know stories both personally and from people I don't know as well who have to present to hospital with an attempt at suicide before they get seen. No cry for help less serious than that generates the attention that it should.Now a National Government has gone a long way towards that by having a mental health Minister. We've already committed lots of funding toward mental health both I Am Hope and again I point out the work towards the Cyclone Gabrielle recovery and also the funding for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle and Cyclone Hale and helping them get the mental health support that they need one year on from that cyclone. But we have to have a plan. We have to have a strategy. So it is vital that we accept that this amendment bill will go every step of the direction towards considering mental health in our strategic objectives and plans for the health sector.Now when we do that planning we are setting the tone across the entire sector both public and private that outcomes for mental health and wellbeing are as important as physical health. We have a sky-rocketing number of mental health cases attempted suicides and suicides across our country—and across the world in fact. Recently surveyed 92 percent of surveyed New Zealanders—in just six years there's been a 92 percent—sorry—increase in Kiwis reporting that they have unmet mental health needs. Now I have long been a staunch advocate for mental health. It comes to people in many ways. It comes at different times. The people that struggle the most are often the people you don't know are struggling. We have all sorts of campaigns to talk with friends to be open to share stories. We have an incredible number of NGOs stepping in to do what the Government should be doing. But we need to have a plan and that's what this amendment bill aims to do.Now I just want to acknowledge the current Minister for Mental Health but who was the member that put forward this bill. I want to acknowledge Minister Doocey for his hard work putting this member's bill together. I'm privileged to be able to take this on as the member responsible. It's so so important for us to have something like this set the tone for the direction that we are heading.Now the reason—and I did allude to it earlier—that the Minister put this amendment bill forward is because the then member had proposed these amendments to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill at the time and they were put down they were battered back. Now whether that was political or for other reasons now that we are putting this amendment bill forward there should be absolutely no opposition to it because it is such a simple simple amendment that will have such a massive impact. The proportionality of a small amendment to absolutely specifically itemise the strategic planning of mental health and wellbeing will have such an impactful outcome on our mental health. So it is vital that our health Minister our associate health Minister are able to and mandated to for all future Governments have a strategic plan for mental health and wellbeing because without a strategic plan you cannot look for funding you cannot make a plan long term you cannot plan for infrastructure you cannot plan for long-term funding. All of this stuff is absolutely vital but it's common sense. It's pragmatic. Like I said absolutely no party should oppose this. It's a small tweak it's something simple for our Government to do but it's something that our Government and our party before we were in Government has been absolutely advocating for and absolutely supportive of.Now a 92 percent increase of people that have unmet mental health needs is exactly where we need to focus. So if we're looking at having a strategic plan for mental health and wellbeing we can start right there. We have facts and figures. It is absolutely fundamental that we focus on those people.Look I want to speak also to the support that this amendment bill—and the amendments at the time might I add when the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Bill was brought in by the previous Labour Government—was overwhelming. We had support from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission we had support from the Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand we had support from Emerge Aotearoa and we had support from Mental Health Advocacy and Peer Support Trust. Now that is four organisations whose primary role is mental health and they felt that it was an absolutely gross oversight to not have that amendment in the bill in the first place. There was intention to change but it didn't happen. Unfortunately without having this as a mandatory part in an amendment bill then it just becomes out of sight out of mind. It is absolutely fundamental that this is an explicit focus for us. We need to lead from the top. If the Government doesn't change and make this the priority of health as equally considered as physical health then neither will the rest of our country.I still know in many cases and sadly very close to me people who present with mental health issues in the workplace and because it's an invisible issue it's not considered in the same way as physical health. I had a very dear friend come to me and say that she feels that she would rather have a broken leg; she wishes that she'd broke her leg so that her employer would understand the importance of what she was going through. The employer's going to take that from the top; they're going to take that from the Government. If we have a plan and we put that in place and we lead from the top then that is what's going to get us the outcome. We need people to feel like they can talk to someone; they feel that they're going to be heard; they feel that if they go to a GP that they've got a path to support. They do not want to feel that they have to reach for the worst possible outcome to get the help that they need. Without a plan we have no action forward. So with that I commend it to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."