Moroney Sue: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Moroney Sue: Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11009] 
SUE MORONEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to be able to speak to the Government’s commitment to the mental health sector at the third reading of the Mental Health Commission Amendment Bill. I am very pleased that the bill has been dealt with in such a timely fashion by the House. The life of the Mental Health Commission was about to expire so it was important that the Health Committee could progress the bill through all of its processes in a timely fashion. With the third reading of the bill today the conclusion of that process is about to come about and it is not before time. 
The bill gives some certainty to the ongoing life of the commission and it provides an opportunity for the commission to look at its functions as an important watchdog body and enhance those functions in this very important area of mental health. As many speakers have outlined already mental health is an area in which the users are particularly vulnerable so having a commission in both a watchdog role and an advocacy role is extremely important. 
It is from that perspective that I raise concerns about the National’s Party’s view that the life of the commission should not be extended through to 2015. This Government thinks the role of the commission is very important and we have no fear about having an independent watchdog body advocating for families and advocating for users of this service. We have no fear of that but during the select committee process we detected that National was very nervous perhaps about the prospect of becoming the Government. That is a view that it holds—that it may well form the next Government. But there is good news for the rest of the country though: National would not need to think about the issue until 2015 because this Government is extending the life of the commission until then. That change has been supported by the House so it is just as well. 
 The National Party will probably not want to take over mental health services until 2015 at this rate. A party that stands on a platform of tax cuts which must mean cuts to public spending knows very well that that means the health sector will suffer the most from funding cuts. National members know that very well. They desperately would not want to be in the situation of cutting funding to health which would therefore mean a cut to mental health funding and having a watchdog body overseeing that so that it could report every single cut and its impact on users of those services and their families. 
For people listening to this debate that is a warning about the type of attitude that exists within the National Party in respect of the role it wants the commission to have. In fact I think the first position National Party members came up with at the Health Committee was that of not wanting to see the commission exist beyond 2009; they wanted the life of the commission to expire at that point. They are supporting this bill and I thank National members for doing so but they did want to record their view in the report back from the select committee that the commission should not be in place for any longer than 3 years after the passing of this bill. But we are up to the third reading debate and that means that with the support of all the other parties in the House this bill will become an Act. The commission will have its life extended and it will also have new functions. 
I particularly want to speak on the new function of advocacy. The bill puts in place a position where the commission is going to have a function to discuss service user and family advocacy—that is one of the commission’s new functions. So giving a voice— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Stop reading your speech. 
SUE MORONEY 
: Tau Henare seems to have taken exception to my view of the National Party and its intended cuts to mental health. I did not need to read anything about that Mr Henare; I can see it written all over your face and your body language. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! 
SUE MORONEY 
: I am sorry Mr Assistant Speaker. I do not mean your face of course but Mr Henare’s face. His body language says it all about his concern about what I have just exposed in respect of the National Party’s agenda. 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Don’t expose yourself. 
SUE MORONEY 
: No no. The National Party has made it clear that it will cut taxes and it will therefore cut funding to the health sector. It is important though that the commission’s new functions allow a voice to be given to the views and concerns of the users of the mental health services and that is a relatively recent phenomenon. In New Zealand the commission has articulated the voice of service users particularly well since its inception in 1996. 
I take the opportunity to thank the commission for the good work it has done to date even though there is a lot still to be done particularly in this area of advocating for service users and their families. Even though the service user advocacy role that the commission has taken is not a function of the commission under the current Mental Health Commission Act many submitters in the policy submission process raised this issue with us and the Health Committee expressed strong support for this role. Many argued that the commission represented service users of mental health services in a way that had not occurred before the commission was established. They saw that as perhaps not giving the same value to the voice of families and whanau. But the wording in the bill is absolutely clear that it gives them equal status so the commission is advocating for both the service user and his or her family or whanau. 
The bill addresses the problem by extending the commission’s advocacy role to the families and whanau of mental health service users. So this is actually an advance in terms of responding to the issues that those submitters brought before us. This will often be a difficult balancing act as not all the interests will align smoothly. However the Government considers it to be vital to the future cohesion of the sector that the commission works to promote a balanced view of the issues facing the sector. The commission in carrying out its advocacy roles will identify and articulate the needs and aspirations of mental health service users as a whole and of their families and whanau as a whole. 
Notwithstanding the strongly held views of those who seek additional protection for the rights of service users the commission will not act as an advocate for individuals or particular families. There are adequate mechanisms in place to discharge the individual advocacy function. The commission will have a valuable role in the mental health sector to ensure that the voices of all of those who wish to be heard are heard. So it very important that we are able to extend the life of this commission through to 2015 not to expire it earlier as the National Party would have us do. 
I thank all the parties in this House for supporting the third reading of this bill so that the life of the commission can be extended and we can continue to have a very strong watchdog and advocacy role in the mental health services. It is so important. 
In conclusion I would like to take the opportunity to thank not just those serving on the commission but those serving in our mental health services. It is a very difficult area for our workforce to be operating in and I know that day-to-day dilemmas arise in those mental health service settings. By and large people deal with those dilemmas professionally. They deal with those issues in the context of using the best resources that they have. We will always continue to have—and should continue to have—an ongoing debate in this country about the adequacy and the appropriateness of mental health services. It is my firm belief that the moment we do not have that debate is the moment we forget the people who need that service so desperately. Thank you.