Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): I rise to speak on the Data and Statistics Bill. This is a bill that the National Party supports one which modernises an Act which goes back some time and takes into account the significant advances that have happened since 1975 when the original Act came into force.We need good data to make good decisions. For example the faster cancer treatment target of 90 percent has been achieved 94.9 percent of the time in the Canterbury District Health Board; it has been achieved only 64.9 percent of the time in the Southern District Health Board. This is the worst in the country. Families and hard-working oncologists shouldn't be let down by a health system that is under-resourced in our region. And this is why statistics matter why we need good statistics so we can ensure we get the right resourcing for our health system.Why does it matter? There's a gentleman who lives just around the corner from me by the name of Jeremy MacGillivray who I met about a year ago who has just passed away. He's another young Southerner and parent who had a lengthy delay getting diagnosis and treatment and he has unfortunately left this Earth sooner than he probably should have because we don't have adequate resourcing in our region. An 18-month delay in diagnosing Jeremy with bowel cancer most likely cost him his life. He's a dad a husband—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order! Can the member bring us back to the billJOSEPH MOONEY: This is Madam Speaker. I'm just speaking to why this bill matters and why we need good data to inform the decisions that are made to inform policy and inform the Government. I'll just say that in 2017 Jeremy started waking with stomach cramps and asked to be checked for bowel cancer because the disease had claimed his grandfather. His request was declined because of his age lack of symptoms and because a direct relative—a parent or sibling—had not had the disease. After diagnosis he was told of an 18-week wait for chemotherapy. Unfortunately it took too long. So that's why this bill is very very important.The bill is one we do support; we support the better collection publication and analysis of data and statistics to quickly identify trends and tailor solutions. I'll just say again briefly why that matters: in the Southern District Health Board the current threshold of access for the orthopaedic triage process is painfully elevated due to the completely unacknowledged lack of resources from the Ministry of Health and it has meant that patients are unable to be seen because of a lack of resourcing. We have a hospital in Southland that is short 90 beds and two theatres presently for the present needs of the region. The population is I'm pleased to say growing but for our existing needs we just don't have enough theatres we don't have enough beds we don't have enough health staff. And that's why we need this collection and publication and analysis of data and statistics to ensure that the Government actually has the proper information publishes that information to the public so the public understands what is needed and the Government understands what is needed to provide the proper resourcing. Using granular data to tailor wraparound support services is at the heart of National's approach and for example our social investment approach to governance.New Zealand needs to make sure that our data collection methods and our statistical analysis are keeping up with modern technology and the standards that are set internationally. We need to ensure as well that data across agencies is collected in similar ways and presented in ways that can be easily comparable so that analysis of data is easily done. That's why at the beginning of my speech I referred to the Canterbury District Health Board having a 94.9 percent achievement in terms of the faster cancer screening targets but the Southern District Health Board having a woeful 64.9 percent approach.So we very much support this. We look forward to the Government bringing this bill in and we look forward to the relevant information being provided to the public as well because it's important that this information is widely disseminated so that the public actually understands what is happening in their regions and what their region needs. And it's only with the provision of appropriate data and appropriately packaged data—so it's easily accessible—that people can understand that information. So I'll finish my contribution there and say that this is a good step and the National Party is in support of this bill.