Clark DavidHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Health): Just to respond to some points the member Jenny Marcroft has raised there. The first really was a question around the level of confidence in the ability of the commissioner Karen Poutasi to cut deficits and improve services. I am confident that that task can be achieved over time but I don't underestimate the scale of the task. I acknowledge the member's comments around Dr Poutasi's proud track record as a leader in the public sector and indeed as a former Director-General of Health. She is indeed supremely well-qualified for this task but I know that in the early stages of her work she's uncovering quite the extent of the challenges and I expect we'll learn more about that as she goes through her task. I do note that there was recently an independent report released that had been commissioned under the previous leadership which does indeed paint a very challenging picture of both the financial and clinical challenges ahead. I think we will learn more through reading and examining that report of just the scale of this task. So it won't be an overnight turn-around. I don't think anybody expects that. This is not about simply slashing budgets and this is not a Government that wants to do that. We want to make sure that they're supported. If they need to invest to make change to put them on a sustainable footing then that is something that I as Minister will certainly be looking at. I accept that sometimes you do need to invest to make change and to make sure things are sustainable in the longer term and in fact the concern has been around the failure of the board in the past to make the necessary difficult investment decisions to put the district health board (DHB) on a stable long-term footing. In terms of the choice of chief executive certainly Dr Snee has achieved good results in the Hawke's Bay. It's obviously the job of the commissioner to appoint the chief executive and not the job of the Minister to comment too much on operational matters but I know that they are very pleased to have him. As someone very familiar with the health system and someone who is really looking forward to the challenge that will come with the Waikato job it is a big job. It is a big DHB serving a big and important population. There are lots of challenges in terms of how that all gets sorted out. I've touched on some of the relationship challenges across primary care and so on. Of course there's also the challenges with interacting with the regional hospitals like all the three T's—the three small hospitals in the region—and how those resources are used most effectively to make sure that we are making the most of all the facilities that we have in our health system and the relationships between clinicians are good and to make sure that we're serving the public by making services available locally for them in the locations that are convenient for them but are also of the highest quality. So I have confidence that that team of Dr Poutasi Dr Andrew Connelly Chad Paraone and Professor Margaret Wilson will turn that DHB around but I don't pretend that that will happen overnight. These are significant challenges. The step of putting in a commissioner is one that's not taken lightly by a Minister of Health. It is taken when there are serious challenges to be tackled that will likely take a number of years to address. But my expectation is that we will indeed return to democracy in 2022 and that the public will then again be able to take the ownership in that direct way that you get through democracy through board appointments locally and that we will have a high-functioning DHB meeting the needs of its community as it does now. We just need to be sure that it's got the plan to deliver that into the future. I thank the member.