Woodhouse MichaelHon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE (National): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to take a call in what I think will be a relatively brief committee of the whole House on the Organ Donors and Related Matters Bill because as is often the case—mostly the case I think—the Health Committee was very strongly unified behind both the intent of the bill and the need for changes to it. I note the Minister hasn't brought any amendments to the committee for consideration and indeed the Opposition doesn't have any anyway.I want to endorse the comments of Dr Craig. It's not for me to repeat them and so I will confine my comments to Part 2. With your indulgence Madam Chair I want to actually talk about some suggested changes by submitters that after careful consideration neither the committee nor I—actually as a matter of fact—would recommend for amendment in the committee of the whole House.It relates to the functions of the new New Zealand Blood and Organ Service. Now we had a number of submissions along the lines of the fact that the bill did not provide sufficient clarity about the roles and function of the New Zealand Blood and Organ Service which is what the name now is—or will be when the bill is passed—thanks to the select committee's recommended changes.I want to specifically talk about the submission by Kidney Health New Zealand—some fantastic advocates for the role of increasing organ donation in New Zealand and the support of those with chronic renal disease who are either waiting for or have had transplants. I think the most pertinent part of their submission for me in support of their case that our bill should more closely mirror the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority Act which was implemented by the Australian Parliament in 2008 is the graph that showed what was a marked difference in organ donation rates following the introduction and passage of that legislation. They were attributing that change to the strengthened powers that that authority had compared with what was being proposed in this bill.They went on to talk about the issues of clinical governance and also the concern that the blood and organ donation service is relatively limited in its degree of influence over the many other agencies and actors in the organ donation space. Both the Health Committee during the select committee process and also I afterwards having been approached by a couple of submitters thought very carefully about this and it seems to me that the answer may lie both somewhere in the middle of where the bill is now and where the Australian legislation is. But that does not necessarily mean that the bill should be strengthened. My preference actually is not for the legislation to be as prescriptive as the Australian legislation. I think there is merit in allowing the blood and organ service to articulate and carry out its functions with a little more freedom than was being proposed. But I should say this—and as one that aspires to be the Minister of Health in 10 months' time I will be watching this very closely—Hon Members: Ha ha!Hon MICHAEL WOODHOUSE: I didn't think it was that funny. It's what we would call in Government an aspirational goal in National's year of delivery which will be 2020.But I think it's really important that—we all agree what the goal of this organisation is. The question is: what resources will they need? What clear mandate do they have and how will they interact with the other participants in increasing organ donation in New Zealand? We changed the bill actually to increase the role of clinical governance. I think that was an important step but we weren't then very prescriptive in what that meant and how they would interact. I think the submitters had valid points in their submissions about whether or not the role should be strengthened legislatively. But I'm relaxed that we both have the right balance but also the right oversight to make sure that they are given the tools that they need to deliver what we all want to see and that is an increase in the rate of organ donation in New Zealand. And I wish them all the best in that endeavour.