Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Tēnā koutou katoa. It is my absolute pleasure to speak on this the third reading of the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Amendment Bill. I want to take the opportunity to congratulate the Minister and his officials because we actually worked incredibly diligently as a select committee but I too want to acknowledge all the work that was done before the bill was actually presented to the House.It was presented to the House under three areas: one was to improve the operation of the Act the second was to protect public safety in an ever-increasing and changing health environment and it was also to support the development of New Zealand's health workforce now and in the future. I particularly want to focus on the 2012 review—so there was a review in 2007 and then again in 2012—and we refer to extensive consultation but I actually just want to briefly outline what that was.They actually received 145 public submissions—and this is the Ministry of Health—to a document entitled 2012 Review of the Health Practitioners Confidence Assurance Act 2003. I want to highlight that number because it saw 16 of the responsible authorities participate; it saw 34 professional associations 28 educators of health professionals and 35 groups of individual health professionals. That gave rise to the piece of legislation that came before this Parliament that we all supported at the first reading. Then what happened in the Health Committee is we did receive 49 submissions and heard from 23 oral submitters and in fact we made substantive changes even then to the piece of legislation that is before us tonight.I just want to highlight some of those. So it was in fact the select committee that recommended the following amendments: revoking the accreditation of an educational institution; electronic communications; options for dealing with practitioners who have been found guilty of an offence; temporary suspension of practising certificates; professional conduct committee placing conditions on a practitioner's scope of practice; costs of Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal; wider consultation before recommending that authorities amalgamate; registration to continue when authorities amalgamate; cultural competence issues—that the Minister has just spoken about; performance reviews and ability to consult on the terms of reference and annual reports to include information from performance reviews; workforce data should include gender and ethnicity; removal or suspension from an overseas register; orders of an authority; and date when orders can take effect.That's a huge amount of work that the select committee did. The reason I wanted to read it out was because we worked really really hard across the House and I do want to take the opportunity to thank my colleagues on the Health Committee. We work on issues of this importance in the best interest of New Zealanders. So the impression that we don't work like that—I think this bill is testament to the fact that the work that select committees do the importance of New Zealanders making submissions contributing to the select committee process. I actually think this bill is a case study of the impact that those submissions can have on pieces of legislation. So I want to thank all of those involved as health practitioners in New Zealand because for all intents and purposes they could have rested on their laurels after the second review but they didn't. They fronted up and they were engaged and I hope that they have found the process satisfying and that what we've come up with as a Parliament is something that they too are proud of because I certainly am.Just to remind all of us that the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act primarily does two things. It ensures health practitioners are competent and fit to practise their professions and I think one of the things I have emphasised previously is that it's not just about the health practitioners; it's also about those professional organisations the responsible authorities the professional associations. What this bill does is make sure that they are culturally competent too. We've seen an expansion of this theory of cultural competence from an individual to an actual sector in our society.So what we're hoping through this piece of legislation is that we have a fit for purpose culturally competent health practitioner network that is willing and able to meet the needs of New Zealanders. How do we think they best do that? By reflecting the people that they serve. I think this will provide and this Act eventually an opportunity for our health sector to be fit for purpose to meet the demands of this changing environment that actually has changed and is changing because of the composition of New Zealand in terms of our demography.So I just want to conclude by again highlighting the officials who worked on this piece of legislation. They were amazing and if they can take this as an endorsement of their work and certainly if the Minister of Health can take that as an endorsement of those who worked on this bill within the Ministry of Health then I'm happy for that to be so. So I commend this bill to the House. Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker.