Doocey MattMATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri): Thank you very much Mr Speaker. I rise on behalf of the National Party in support of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill. Fair to say a quite technical bill quite perfunctory. We are now at the third reading. I think the bill is in a good shape going through the legislative process. I'd like to acknowledge my colleagues in all parties on the Health Committee. We heard a number of submissions and were able to make a number of amendments based on the feedback that we received. I think the points of this bill have been well canvassed over the second and the third readings. And we did go through clause by clause in the committee of the whole House. What I would point out—and it is one of the first points in the legislative statement and we heard it from the Minister of Health this morning—is about this bill being a small step and part of one of the 38 recommendations of course part of He Ara Oranga. There was 40 recommendations in the Government's mental health and addictions inquiry. One of those 38 recommendations was for the repeal and the replacement of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act and I agree with the Minister—one of the few things we probably do—when he said it is a small step; a very small step. Because literally this Government's been in power now for four years. They raised a lot of expectation in mental health. They encouraged thousands of New Zealanders to come along and tell their personal tragic and heartfelt stories. They promised them a lot and turned that into a report of which they accepted 38 recommendations yet four years on three years after the inquiry the recommendation that's pointed to in the repeal and replacement of the mental health Act on this legislative statement has still not even been started. The Minister said Things are on track." Well this bill was a bit of a stocking-filler—let's be honest—to look as though you're kind of doing something in that space. But interesting enough when we looked at the theme of the submissions one of the biggest themes that came back through the submissions was people saying "When are you going to start the repeal and replacement of the mental health Act?" and of course because of that and the large outcry from the submissions what did the Government do? Well about a week ago they opened a public consultation on the repeal and the replacement of the mental health Act. [Interruption] Well I am speaking to the bill Mr Speaker because it is part of—SPEAKER: I'm now going to draw the member back to the bill. The third reading debate is a debate on the bill as it emerges from the committee stage. It's not about what might be relevant submissions to a select committee or it's not a broad-ranging debate like a second reading debate. The speech that he's making now would be perfectly valid at that stage but this is quite a narrow debate. As I've said it's on this bill not on other bills and not on what's not in the bill. It's on the bill as it emerges. MATT DOOCEY: Point of order Mr Speaker. When I look at the legislative statement for the third reading of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill the first point is about the repeal and replacement and goes on about that within this bill and that is exactly what I'm speaking to—the legislative statement. SPEAKER: I will be listening very carefully to the member. He hasn't convinced me yet but I'll be liberal with him for a minute. MATT DOOCEY: So I'll bring that point to a close Mr Speaker. SPEAKER: That's a good idea I think. MATT DOOCEY: I think it's very well canvassed that this Government raised expectations accepted a lot of recommendations but actually hasn't followed through. In this bill when you look at it it has been signalled to start the repeal and replacement but in fact with the public consultation only just starting we know that's a long way off and I would encourage the Government to stick to what they agreed and actually bring that legislation as promised to New Zealanders sooner rather than later. This bill will go some way I think into improving technology in supporting some of the most vulnerable New Zealanders those with lifelong and severe enduring mental illness. Quite often at the moment we're kind of quite focused on chasing the new shiny stuff around supporting middle New Zealand—early intervention; mild to moderate—and sometimes at the expense of those New Zealanders who will have to live with lifelong severe and enduring mental illness for the rest of their lives. I think one thing we can do and that this bill will allow is the increased use of audiovisual link—or AVL—technology. That will allow these vulnerable New Zealanders to (a) get timely assessment and treatment through the use of AVL but also allow them to include their family and their loved ones in that process. There has been a lot of discussion along the course of this bill around ensuring the use of that AVL is right and appropriate. I suppose the last thing we want is the use of AVL being primarily driven by maybe more the workforce side around efficiency of time and what we want to make sure is that the use of AVL is introduced and used on an individual case by case basis it's actually for the benefit of that patient. That's why it's good to see in this bill there are enhanced safeguards for the use of things like AVL where the decision points of why the mental health professional would want to use AVL now has to be recorded and also that will have to be reported to the director-general of mental health and will be looked to be published so the public can understand the use of AVL going forward. That whole principle of safeguards reporting and publishing also flows into another key part of this Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill and that was around the use for special patients and it is looking at how we transport them safely. I think we're looking at a restraint plan for some of those special patients. Again we wouldn't want restraint management plans to be seen as a default. We would want to see it on a case by case basis and probably more in exceptional terms. I think when we're advocating and legislating for the increased use of force and restraint we unfortunately know that at times with mental health patients there might be times for their own safety and for the safety of people around them that these restraints will need to be used but I think it is important that we do have the safeguards around this as well for ensuring it is used in a way that is appropriate and for the safety of the individual as well. Another thing this bill brings forward in its third reading is around the sunset clauses that were brought in under COVID. We know we all had to respond very differently at the height of the COVID restrictions—and dare I say it for some of our colleagues who are in Auckland and the Waikato region at the moment they're still dealing with the lockdowns—and of course we'd like to acknowledge our mental health and our wider health workforce who are working in some very trying times to give people the most appropriate treatment in a time of restrictions as well. One I think of the most important parts of this bill is the elimination of indefinite treatment orders. And I think it would probably surprise a lot of New Zealanders that some vulnerable New Zealanders were on indefinite treatment orders. Basically they were put on an order and just left. And I don't think anyone would agree once they were aware of that practice that that was right. I think that it is right that this bill will enact that every 12 months for someone who is on a compulsory treatment order this will need to be reviewed to ensure that for that person it's the most appropriate treatment order for them either compulsory or voluntary. But most importantly I think that what we want to see—and this is why it's important we move to repealing and replacing the mental health Act—is that vulnerable New Zealanders with lifelong severe and enduring mental illness are put at the heart of their care planning and we make sure that the care planning around them the resources they get actually support them to go on and live the life that they choose and hopefully a life that they can be a productive member of society. So I think in summary Madam Speaker Dean—it's nice to see you in the Chair—this is a very small technical perfunctory bill that has done well out of the legislative process. But ultimately what we want to see from this Government is less stocking-fillers more actions. They promised a lot in mental health and now they need to start delivering."