Little AndrewHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): Thank you Madam Chair and thank you members for your recent contributions. Can I start with the contribution from Simon Court and his most recent contribution was to implore the committee to accept his Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) amending clause 57 to add a reference to financial management. As the member himself acknowledged in his contribution clause 57 already provides in the list of collective board skills performance monitoring and governance. It is pretty obvious I would have thought that performance monitoring includes not just operational performance but financial performance too. It remains a director's duty that those on boards of this nature must ensure that the financial decisions that they take and the obligations they enter into the debts they take on are consistent with the long-term survival and therefore performance of the entity. Likewise a collective skill in governance means the full range of governance skills that anybody on a board of an entity has to engage in. So with all due respect to the member I think that his SOP doesn't add anything to the clause as it is at the moment. His words would be otiose.That member and also Melissa Lee before him spoke to the committee about the representatives on the regional representative groups and about a concern about the make-up of that representation in particular representatives of mana whenua or Māori. Melissa Lee raised the point: is the representation even adequate? Is it democratic? Simon Court raised the issue that we don't need to specify the make-up—we're all in this together and everybody has water and water needs. None of those contributions mentions what does distinguish the New Zealand constitution and that is the place and status of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. That is a document that carries legal effect. It has been recognised now by generations of our most senior courts and judges and is something that the Crown must take account of. It is right and proper that the obligations of the Crown in any endeavour are appropriately reflected in the legislation covering those endeavours—so when it comes to the governance of water and ensuring the provision of safe drinking water of the safe disposal of wastewater of the safe management of stormwater that the legislation reflects and represents the Crown's obligations as articulated by successive and many judgments of our most senior courts as well as the Waitangi Tribunal. And that is what the legislation does.The regional representative groups set a strategic direction for the entities. They are not making operational decisions. It is a matter for the boards of those entities to do that. I would just say to the committee that as a consequence of hearing from local government as a consequence of hearing from communities considering the many submissions that have accompanied the passage of this bill through the House very careful consideration has been given to the make-up of those various levels of representation and governance—the regional representative group and the board of the entity—to make sure that an appropriate balance is struck to ensure that there is good quality governance focused on what we expect of the entities and also effective representation of the local government owners and of mana whenua in full discharge of the Crown's obligations under the Treaty. The bill in its current state truly reflects that.