Little AndrewMENTAL HEALTH (COMPULSORY ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Health): I present a legislative statement on the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. This bill amends the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act—the Act known as the mental health Act—and is an important part of the work we're doing to initially improve the Act to make it more compliant with basic human rights obligations and introduce some more pragmatic solutions for example for the transporting of patients who fall under the Act. But it's one step along the way to a more fulsome repeal and reform of the current legislation as a consequence of the series of reforms we committed to in 2018 as part of He Ara Oranga.I want to first of all acknowledge the work of the members of the Health Committee and their examination of the bill and the small number of changes that they produced as a consequence of their examination and which are now part of the bill as reported back to the House. I want to thank all those who made submissions to the bill. There were over 50 of them mostly supportive of the bill and recognising the need for change which is of course reflected in it. This piece of legislation or the legislation that it is amending is 30 years old. It is timely for it to be closely examined and changed and reviewed. It's quite clear that the current legislation is out of step with basic expectations of the way people who fall under its aegis should be treated. The bill focuses on four main changes to the principal legislation: first of all eliminating indefinite treatment orders; secondly improving the safety of both patients and the public when transporting special patients as they're known for the purposes of the legislation; thirdly addressing some technical drafting issues that will help to improve the administration of the Act; and then fourthly removing the sunset clause that had been put in as a consequence of COVID legislation that related to appearances in court by audio-visual technology which has turned out to be welcomed by many practitioners and indeed patients. Following examination by the committee I think some refinements are made to it so that there are some further protections for the patients who fall under the bill.In relation to the indefinite treatment orders this amending bill removes those or eliminates those. It is to be remembered that under the principal legislation as it is at the moment an indefinite treatment order has no end and no basis on which it is ordinarily reviewed by the court. So this was seen as a very Draconian very extreme order to place people under and so they will go. They've been very heavily criticised and in the many reviews of the legislation by the monitoring agencies this particular provision has been criticised and it will now go.In relation to the provisions about transporting patients this is a recognition that there are some patients who at the time of being transported between facilities or to and from court pose greater risk than others and some need to be managed appropriately in the course of being transported. Currently there is no power or provision in the current legislation to allow restraint techniques to be applied to allow a patient who is at serious risk of harm to themselves or others to be more safely transported. The amendment will now allow steps to be taken for a patient to be safely transported. So effectively it gives permission to use appropriate or reasonable force including restraint during the transport. There are of course safeguards in place. Any force or restraint is to be used only if absolutely necessary. I won't go into the sort of technical drafting amendments because that would bore the bejesus out of anybody at this time of the night but in terms of the sunset clause for appearances by audio-visual technology as required in the court that is removed and I think it was one of the most common subjects upon which submitters made their submissions to the select committee. There are some safeguards put in place to make sure it's not just used as a convenience that it is used for a proper reason. So there is now a requirement that practitioners must record the fact that consideration was given to whether or not the audio-visual technology use was suitable in the particular circumstances and also a record of it—if it was used and why it was used—so that there is a record kept of that. That is then the subject of reporting to the director of area mental health services who then reports that to the Director of Mental Health so that there is some sort of oversight and monitoring of the extent to which this technology is used and whether or not it is appropriate for the particular patient. So oversight is now part of the regime. Consideration was given about public reporting requirements in relation to all of this. The committee has recommended that future reporting requirements be considered as part of the broader work of the repeal and replacement work of the Mental Health Act and I think that is an appropriate thing to do and it will now comprise part of the work we do on the major repeal of the legislation.In the end this is about making sure that this piece of legislation which has courted controversy from time to time is fit for purpose. It is part of the overarching mental health reforms that this Government is committed to doing because as we said from the outset—and indeed just before we were elected—mental health has been neglected for far too long. We must get it right we must support people and for those people who are particularly troubled and a risk as a consequence of their mental health we need to make sure that in terms of the legislation that compels them to be committed or detained or to undergo treatment—whether for forensic purposes or otherwise—their basic human rights nevertheless are respected and are incorporated into the legislative regime that we have. This amending legislation takes one of many steps towards that. There are other steps and bigger steps to take and that will follow. But on that basis I commend this bill to the House.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to.