Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise and take a call in the Budget 2020 debate. We start off with the context of COVID-19. Never have we had a time that's reinforced the importance of a strong economy low unemployment and increasing incomes on people's mental health. We know that with the numbers of people losing their jobs losing their incomes we're facing a large number of people who are going to be facing mental distress. In fact on the Epidemic Response Committee Sir Peter Gluckman clearly outlined in his report that 10 percent of New Zealanders who will lose their jobs and/or income over the coming months if not years will face getting post-traumatic stress disorder. That is a serious mental illness. So if we're looking at 200000 to 300000 people in that category that's 20000 to 30000 New Zealanders who will face serious mental illness. If there was a Budget for the Government to step up in mental health this was it and they failed. The problem is they believe their own rhetoric on mental health. The Hon Stuart Nash turned up at the Grand Hall when I attended an event for mental health and addiction services. He was there on behalf of the health Minister Dr Clark who at that time said he was busy dealing with COVID-19. We now know that is a debatable point. Now he told that group that in Budget 2019 the Government invested $1.9 billion into mental health services. We know that's not correct because a large portion of that money maybe up to a quarter of it was for the State abuse inquiry. Several hundred million was into Housing First projects. Now they're all good initiatives—don't get me wrong—but they're not front-line mental health services. Yes granted the Government allocated $455 million to the new flagship front-line mental health service much needed by New Zealanders—$450 million. That gave a lot of New Zealanders hope. Yet how much has this Government spent of the $455 million? As at February this year $3.2 million; in May this year $20 million out of $455 million. So what this Government is good at doing is allocating money. But with that example I gave the health Minister can't even spend the money. It's not all just about giving big figures; it's about having a plan. So when the health Minister came out with his re-announcement of $40 million or $50 million for Budget 2020 for the front-line mental health service he highlighted that his front-line mental health service was currently operating from 22 sites. How many of those sites were actually operating before Budget 2019? Twenty-two. There's no net gain of new front-line mental health services. And he announced he's going to roll it out to another 100 GP sites. Well we have 1800 GPs in New Zealand. When that gets rolled out under Budget 2020 by July 2021 those 100 sites will be 8 percent of GPs. And when I asked the health Minister what GPs they were going to be rolled out to he didn't know. No plan.This is the problem in mental health. The Government's believing its own rhetoric yet they're not allocating the funding and they have no plan for increasing what their own mental health inquiry said. The indicative target of the mental health inquiry was to increase access from 7 percent to 20 percent. But ask this Government how much they have increased access by—they can't tell you. So it's all very well allocating a lot of money but you've actually got to spend it and you've got to have a plan.And now here they are faced with COVID-19 and the GP Dr Baddock who's the New Zealand Medical Association chair told the Epidemic Response Committee that we're going to see a huge amount of mental health problems over the next 12 months and beyond. We need to be able to deal with that. And where were they in Budget 2020? Missing in action. Yes they'll point to initiatives like Mana Ake in Canterbury. What a great programme. The National Government should have done that; we didn't do it. But the problem with that is it's one region out of 16 in New Zealand—one out of 16 that it's been rolled out to. And in Budget 2020 if you look at the documents it clearly states that initiative has only got funding for one more year. There is no confirmed funding for that initiative post-2020 2021. Look at the Piki pilot that the Greens champion—what a great programme providing free counselling to 18- to 24-year-olds. But the same problem: it's in one region. We have 16 regions in New Zealand. That is another initiative that has no secured funding post-2021.And you can see why people are starting to get concerned. We had the Mental Health Foundation who came out after the announcement in Budget 2020 who said The [Mental Health Foundation] remains concerned that the Budget is lacking in some key areas including: No resourcing or implementation plan for the recommendations of He Ara Oranga—without a plan we are concerned that progress will stall and drift." And that's where this Government's mental health response is at: stalling and drifting. After announcing $1.9 billion we now have the major stakeholders saying they're concerned that it's stalling and drifting. And not only that we've seen progress go backwards. The annual reports for the DHBs—waiting times for child and adolescent mental health services: in the last two years the waiting time has increased 75 percent. Fifty percent of DHBs are reporting their waiting time is longer. And you know what the DHBs were saying at those annual reviews when we asked them about the $1.9 billion? They said they couldn't point to where the money is. They didn't think it had flowed out yet. So here we have a Government who should have stepped up in 2020. We've got a huge wave of mental distress occurring as a result of COVID-19 and we have very little. Yes a continuation of Budget 2019. But for the points I outline there's real concern that money is not being spent. Of the $455 million for the new front-line mental health service only $20 million of that's spent. And what's really concerning is the health Minister will blame the GP practices and he'll blame the workforce. Yet what we do know is New Zealand Association of Counsellors (NZAC) - accredited counsellors who are contracted to DHBs to provide primary care have been told there is no further funding to respond to the growing number of referrals they are getting. That's why Christine Macfarlane from NZAC the president of the New Zealand Association of Counsellors came out and called their initiative a total waste of taxpayers' money.So we have a workforce. It can respond now to the growing demand of COVID-19. And I do want to point out—not out of petty politics but maybe an initiative that we can all back to move forward—that post - Christchurch earthquakes the former National Government committed to providing free 50000 counselling sessions through the GPs. Why did we not hear of that in Budget 2020? Because as all the experts are saying in an economy where people are losing their jobs losing their livelihoods losing their incomes losing their agency to make decisions and becoming overcome with the stress in their lives we have not seen a response from this Government. What we needed in Budget 2020 was a plan a plan for how this money was going to be deployed. We can't be told constantly "Well two years ago we promised $1.9 billion." What about today? Where are the new front-line mental health services that will respond to the growing mental distress in COVID-19 in Budget 2020? Thank you Madam Speaker."