King AnnetteHon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour): I move That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance. I opened the newspaper this morning and read the editorial in the New Zealand Herald and it started like this: How could a thousand people fall ill anywhere in New Zealand from drinking tap water?". How could that happen in a First World country? This is a question for the Hastings District Council. It needs to answer it.Also there is an answer that should have been given in this House today and I am surprised that the Acting Minister of Health the Hon Peseta Sam Lotu-Iiga did not take the opportunity to stand in this House and make a ministerial statement about what is happening for the people of Havelock North. I waited. I thought the Minister would take the issue seriously enough that he would have stood and made a ministerial statement. That would have put into perspective what is happening. He could have set out what the Ministry of Health is doing. He could have set out what the district council and the regional council were undertaking. He could have set out the time lines of what has gone on. There was not a word from the Acting Minister and I am very disappointed because it showed that this issue was not important enough to this Government for it to take it seriously.This bug that has been found in the water supply in Havelock North is being felt in schools. Schools have been closed. It has been felt in rest homes and we have had two of the three rest homes report cases. Two residents have been taken into intensive care and one older person from one of those rest homes has died. How could this happen in a municipal area of New Zealand where we believe we have First World water supply?So I think there are a number of questions that need to be asked and answers given. More than 2000 people are now seriously ill from the gastro bug campylobacter. There must be an inquiry into how this has happened. I am told there is going to be one but why did the Minister not stand today and say what the inquiry was and what the terms of reference are? There is no leadership on this issue. Two thousand people—when in the history of New Zealand have we had 2000 New Zealanders go down with campylobacter in one hit? I have never heard of it. This is a large-scale health crisis and it does need urgent investigation by the Government. I have to say that the local member has been missing in action on this issue—missing in action.Hon Dr Nick Smith: That's untrue.Hon ANNETTE KING: It is absolutely true. He is missing in action. He has not said anything. I heard Nick Smith this morning asked as an afterthought question on Morning Report—not with the Minister on talking about what happened and not with the local member on the radio talking about what was happening in his area.This particular bug can incubate for up to 10 days so it is likely that more people will get sick over the forthcoming days. As I said the schools are closed and 22 people are in hospital—22 people in hospital—and as I said two are in intensive care. New Zealanders need to be confident about their drinking water. I think the lack of Government response today when the outbreak is well under way and the public attention is on an all-time high about this issue shows just how seriously the Government has taken it—hoping that by ignoring it it will go away. The Government does not understand that this is not going to go away for days. There are going to be more people ill over the next few days.The Government has a responsibility in this debate. It has a responsibility in administering drinking-water quality in New Zealand and it is the responsibility of the Government and the Ministry of Health to make sure that the district health board oversees the quality of water. What has been very disappointing in this whole issue is just how slow the reaction has been by the Government first of all to assist the council—to assist the local council in Hawke's Bay—but also to assist the district health board which is not equipped and not resourced for dealing with an outbreak of this size.This is clearly an issue with the way that testing has been conducted. By the time a press release was issued on Friday evening—Friday evening—the outbreak was already spreading. So it took until Friday evening for a press release to be released. I am informed that this outbreak was known about much earlier than that but the public were not advised. If the local member knew and the Minister knew where was their leadership on this issue? Where were they when it came to this issue? Only today is an outreach programme going door to door knocking on people's doors—only today 4 days after the positive test result it is being implemented for vulnerable elderly citizens. So now officials have decided to go door to door days after the event when many people have been affected—filling up their glasses having a drink of water not knowing they were drinking contaminated water. The Red Cross and civil defence are being involved only now Minister Smith Minister for the Environment. They are being involved only now. Why have we waited so long? Why has this Government ignored—Hon Dr Nick Smith: Not true.Hon ANNETTE KING: The Minister has a habit I have to say of saying: "Not true." He spent the entire day saying "Not true." on every question that was asked of him. I can tell him that this is true. The Red Cross and civil defence are being involved only now. That is correct. Water tankers arrived only yesterday—dispute that Minister. Water tankers arrived yesterday when a boil-water notice was issued on Friday evening. This shows a real dereliction of duty.Andrew Little: Cavalier.Hon ANNETTE KING: It is very cavalier in terms of the approach towards the health of vulnerable New Zealanders because this particular bug affects older people. Our old grannies and grandads our older parents—they are the ones who are affected and that is why you have the elderly from rest homes affected. One has died and others are in intensive care. This is a disgrace—this Government's reaction to a serious issue.But I have to say that this Government has taken a completely hands-off approach when it comes to the quality of drinking water around New Zealand. Last year the Government cut the drinking-water subsidy. In fact in many of our small towns where many of our water supplies are not up to standard the Government cut the money that was going to them—money that we put in in Government under Helen Clark which helped many small communities upgrade their water supply so that they had a decent water standard. This Government is so lacking in interest in the quality of water a No. 1 public health issue—is there one product in the world that keeps us alive? It is water. And having quality water must be a gold standard for any First World country.Well the Government cut the subsidy and last year only $10 million was available to councils around New Zealand and they had 40 applications received for over $30 million. That is the level of need around New Zealand in our smaller communities. If you cannot care about your smaller communities when it comes to the quality of water you are not going to care a damn about the bigger ones. They are on their own. That is what the reaction of this Government has been to Havelock North. It is on its own because the reaction has been so slow. I want to point out to you the background of what was happening here and I go back to Tuesday 9 August. The Havelock supply was tested and found to be clear but residents report that they were starting to fall ill at that time. On Thursday the 11th the test was taken. The test results were received on Friday the 12th which indicated a presence. On Friday the 12th the results of the second test were received at the same time as discussions were beginning with the district health board over the pattern of illness that was starting to emerge. Chlorination had been initiated by late Friday. So we are starting with people beginning to become unwell on Tuesday and some action starting to happen on Friday evening. That is when the district council at 5.30 in the evening issued a boil-water communication. That was the first time it did it and it was done with a press release.I have to say I wonder how many people sitting at home went online to read the press release of the Hastings District Council. How many older people saw on television that they needed to be boiling their water? As I said a moment ago officials did not start knocking on doors until now. Those days have gone by and that bug has spread amongst many many of those people living in Havelock North—unadvised—not knowing that what they were doing was affecting their health. Then on Saturday 13 August the positive presence was confirmed by a more detailed analysis. On Monday it was revealed that over the past 3 years—the past 3 years—there have been three positive tests for the Brookvale bore No. 3—three positive tests. The aquifer obviously has some sort of problem and so putting down a bore into the same aquifer is probably going to have the same results.You would have thought that officials may well have looked at this much earlier. The council said that the level of contamination was very low and it has chlorinated the water but that has not stopped the spread. The actions it has taken have been insufficient. I wonder whether the council has sought advice from others who supply water to see whether there are other things that could be done.I thought that Stuart Nash came up with a very good idea yesterday when he said that perhaps those who are taking free water to export internationally would now like to provide the bottled water to the people of Havelock North. Why should they be paying for bottled water when through their rates they pay for what they think is going to be clean drinking-water? Why should it be a cost on them? They pay their rates to get good clean drinking-water. So I say to the Government how about putting your hand up and saying that there will be help for those people who are buying bottled water? I say to the Government how about showing some leadership? How about Sam Lotu-Iiga who is the Acting Minister of Health who always finds it difficult to give an answer on anything—why does he not take a lead? The Minister of Health might not be able to. He has got other matters that are far more important but this Minister ought to have taken a lead. I did not know whether he was stopped from taking a lead or whether he was told: "Keep it below the radar—we don't want to get involved here." If that is the case then the Government has misread the circumstances in Havelock North.I say to the local member where is the member's leadership? Has the member been and visited those communities? Has he gone and knocked on doors himself asking people whether they are OK? Has he visited the rest homes to see whether the people there are all right? I would say that if the member has not done that that is not the sign of a good local member. I have to say to that member that drinking water—quality drinking-water—ought to have been a priority for this Government. I think it is a shame on this Government that we came into this House today waiting for some indication that it meant something to the Government and to the very good people of Havelock North but we got no response at all. I think that is a very poor performance but I am not surprised. I am not at all surprised because I have found that public health has not been a priority for this Government. Whether it is drinking water whether it is a subsidy for sewerage or whether it is in terms of putting funding in to try to improve the health of New Zealanders and to lift their health status it has not been a priority.Hon Member: They've done the opposite.Hon ANNETTE KING: The Government has done the opposite. It has cut funding to public health in New Zealand. Government members called any action that we took in public health nanny State and PC Government—only to be proven years later that it was wrong—and we now face some major public health issues in this country that they do not want to face. This is the latest example of poor Government decision-making a lack of accountability and a lack of leadership."