Kerekere ElizabethDr ELIZABETH KEREKERE (Green): Tēnā koe. I stand to support the Health (Fluoridation of Drinking Water) Amendment Bill in its final reading. I would like to thank the Minister the Hon Dr Ayesha Verrall for engaging with us to respond to the concerns that we have raised. It would not surprise anybody here that the use of fluoridation is a hotly debated topic inside the Greens but it is also around the country. It's kind of amusing—funny not funny—that the protest outside is not for fluoridation; it's about vaccinations but there are several parallels.So firstly the submitters when they spoke to us raised issues about whether fluoridation is safe whether it's safe to drink it. We certainly support along with most of the submitters and our Minister of Health that yes we know that it has significant health benefits and it is safe for us. We do believe in making a decision based on science and good evidence so we think that that is absolutely being done in this case. We did hear things like fluoridation causes a lack of intelligence" and we feel that that casts quite significant aspersions on all the cities—Auckland Hamilton Wellington and Dunedin—who have been fluoridated—85 percent I think of the 2.5 million people who have access to fluoridated water in this country. We hope though that through this bill that the ministry will continue to connect with those communities in ways that helps address the misinformation that they receive.People spoke about their wish not to have forced vaccination that they can't not have this. And we do actually have in our laws that we can refuse medication and if the main reason for having fluoridation is for health benefits then that is one way of looking at it. So we very much support people having access to non-fluoridated water somewhere reasonably. My colleague Mr Bishop spoke about that one tap in the Hutt and all of us in Wellington me and all my friends used to drive out to fill up all our water bottles to have non-fluoridated water. For a lot of people it's not a concern for them but for some this is really really significant. So the right not to do that but also that these are council supplies that are affected by this.We heard from many people in small areas on marae iwi rural people who have their own wells who help service a few houses around them but they're not affected by this. Absolutely we support the goal to improve the health particularly of Māori people. A lot of stuff happens in our name—that a lot of people will get vaccinated because Māori have got poor health disparities. We hope to see those disparities get addressed. We hope for all the great things that are proposed for a new Māori health authority a new health system. We know that that will take a long time.So some submitters along with us saying "Is fluoridation the best way to improve the oral health of Māori and of children?" Many submitters agreed that no it's not. They made other suggestions about dedicated programmes resourcing of more midwives that reflect the ethnicity and range of mothers and birth parents who are having children more resources going out to support those whānau when they take that baby home support over time—so all of those things that are really not consistent and not available across our country. And as we were waiting for Te Ao Mārama the Māori dental association—did not know there was such a thing. But when they spoke I was quite surprised to hear them say in the absence of all of those things—services for Māori—fluoridation is all we've got. That is a sad indictment really on our health system. So until we build up all of those programmes and exciting things the Minister referred to then we are supporting that this—what I would hope is a stopgap I would hope that people have more choice around this.Of course we do agree that this is a health decision. Councils and people who submitted said of course this should be made and DHBs are being disbanded; it needs to go somewhere. So we support it going to the director-general. We know we have an eminently sensible director-general at the moment. We expect that all the ones moving forward will also be. We do think though that that's a lot of power for one person and we hope and look forward to ways in which the communities who can no longer go and talk to their local DHB board members who can't talk to their local councils have some way of making their views known when the decision is made by the director-general and a council is required to fluoridate.We're quite pleased then that part of the bill has been amended to ensure that the director-general seeks the advice of the director of public health because we think they've got a whole other range of expertise that then they can bring to the table. We would expect that the director-general may probably already do that this way but this makes sure that that happens. We do agree with a consistent and national approach and with that said we commend this bill to the House. Kia ora."