Henare Tau: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Henare Tau: Veterinarians Bill — Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:628;Page:911] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 It is always sad when we hear a very emotional speech from Doug Woolerton. I suppose when somebody speaks emotionally about Bianca Parker-Green we remember our own pets. Mine was Gee. He was a mongrel. He did not worry about that. He got run over and he has gone to that big kennel in the sky. We took him to the vet but he died overnight. It is ironic that it was on the day of my first National Party regional conference in Auckland and I was not there for him. I picked him up and took him home and we buried him in the backyard where the daisies grow now. 
Katherine Rich 
: Are you allowed to do that in Auckland? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Absolutely! It is my land. But I always wondered whether the vet had done the right thing by my dog. I always had the feeling in the back of my head— 
Jo Goodhew 
: Gut—in your gut! 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: —in my gut. Well there is plenty of it. I wondered whether the vet had done the right thing by Gee. 
Phil Heatley 
: Who killed Old Yeller? 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Who killed Gee? Was it the person who was driving the boy-racer car or was it the vet? To this day I really do not know. How ironic it is that we are talking—[ 
Interruption 
] I see that the comedy act for Labour the Minister of Maori Affairs has turned up. He sat in the chair for about 5 minutes and did not know what he was doing. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Before I was rudely interrupted by the dinner break I was talking about my dear departed Gee the hybrid—not mongrel I am told—dog. I will be attempting to take another call as I am allowed to do under the Standing Orders but I want to say that we have always wondered whether the vet did right by our dog. We still to this day do not know whether the vet let him toddle off into kennel land. I suppose the irony of it is today we are celebrating the opening of  
King Kong 
 down the road. King Kong is another animal that is doomed to go to the big ape place in the sky—something that maybe New Zealand First members know something about. 
I want to talk about the part of the commentary dealing with the complaints assessment committee. It states: “Some submitters said the existing complaints and disciplinary processes are weighted in favour of veterinarians.”—hence the insertion of I think clause 30. It is just like the Police Complaints Authority; people need to have trust and faith in the process. I still think there is some way we can fix this. I still think there is a provision in this bill that we should change. It is veterinarians who are on the assessment committee and it is veterinarians who are on the judicial committee. It is a wee bit too much like the Police Complaints Authority where police investigate complaints against the police. There needs to be somewhere in Part 3 a defined demarcation between the council those who sit on the assessment committee and those who sit on the judicial committee. 
That is what this part is supposed to do—to give a bit of trust. It is supposed to provide a process that the public can trust. Many people in this country have pets whether they be birds dogs cats goldfish horses or in Mr Woolerton’s case cows. 
Chris Tremain 
: Three of them. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: He has three cows. He is a huge farmer. Daisy is one of Doug Woolerton’s cows I think. We are supposed to engender that trust and faith in a process and I still do not think Part 3 actually does that at all. The Primary Production Committee has done its utmost to try to get that separation between the organisations but if somebody feels he or she has a complaint to make against a veterinarian there still is no clear demarcation between those who are on the assessment committee and those who are on the judicial committee and I would like to see more work done on that. 
Kate Wilkinson 
: That’s in Part 4 Tau. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: No it is not. If the member reads the bill properly—as I am sure she has; I am not for 1 minute accusing her of having not read the bill—she will see that Part 3 is about the assessment committee and the judicial committee. There has to be more demarcation between the two. Like I said it is a bit like the Police Complaints Authority; we really have to engender some trust and faith in those processes in order for them to work. We have seen in the case of Bianca Parker-Green the sulphur-green cockatoo that the owners did not have enough faith or trust in the process. Where could they go to get that trust that faith and confidence in the process? It is a delicate balance because there have to be skilled people on these committees. I would question how people get on those committees but as my learned colleague said that comes up in Part 4. 
I want to take a brief moment to congratulate the chairman of the committee the Hon David Carter and also my bench mate Phil Heatley on his impassioned plea about clause 30AA. That clause catches those who run away and say they are not veterinarians any more. 
Phil Heatley 
: You can’t keep running. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: They cannot keep running—“You can run but you can’t hide.” That is the great thing about that clause. Phil Heatley did an amazing amount of work on it. I congratulate the committee on that part of it. It really does try to get the balance right and to get some faith and trust in the process but I am afraid that it falls a bit short because the council picks the people who do the assessment and also the people who sit on the judicial committee. So I think we need to tweak that a little bit. 
I do not know what the Minister in the chair Jim Anderton might have to say about that. I hope he takes a call and points out where I am going wrong—or not. I say that if we are to have a process that works properly then we have to make sure that the process does work and that people have enough trust and faith in that process to go down that track whenever they feel that their pet has not been given justice I suppose or the right medicine. Those are my issues on that. I hope the Minister takes a call.