2. Question No. 2—Prime MinisterHon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 2—Prime Minister2. Hon JUDITH COLLINS (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all of her Government's statements and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Yes—in particular our announcement yesterday that a trans-Tasman bubble will commence on 19 April. The bubble will give our economic recovery a boost and represents a unique arrangement of safely opening up international travel while continuing to pursue a strategy of elimination and keeping the virus out of New Zealand. We've all worked hard to ensure travel is safe and that the necessary public health measures are in place and this opening represents a new chapter in our response and recovery to COVID-19.Hon Judith Collins: Does the latest report from the Office of the Director of Mental Health and Addiction Services include data on the age-standardised rate of suicide in New Zealand as it did in previous versions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: My understanding from the Ministry of Health—and keeping in mind that the decisions around this report sat entirely with them—is that they have looked at the original intent of the report which was to report against three pieces of legislation. They also looked at whether or not information that had subsequently been added over successive years to the report was being reported on elsewhere. Suicide data is an example where they made a decision that because that information was reported elsewhere it was removed from the report which was originally intended to capture data that they are required to report on under three different pieces of legislation.Hon Judith Collins: Does the report include data on the percentage of people seen by mental health services within three weeks as it did in previous versions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: That again is another example of where they had data that was already being reported through their Nationwide Service Framework. So the view was because that data was already reported elsewhere it wasn't included on the report which originally always had just included reporting as I understand against three pieces of legislation. That's a report that I think's been produced going back to about 2005. Over successive years additional things have been added. The Ministry of Health made a decision to go back to the core purpose of the report. If I may there are a couple of other areas though that I've been advised were also included in the report that it is not 100 percent clear to me are available elsewhere. I'll note that the reporting on deaths reported under section 132 of the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act—that is not an area I've yet been able to determine whether or not that is information publicly available. I have spoken to the Minister of Health about whether or not we can ask the ministry to confirm—[Interruption]SPEAKER: Order! Order! Can I ask the Prime Minister to sit down. This is a matter which is a very serious matter for lots of families in New Zealand. It will be heard in silence.Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Just to complete the question that is an area where I'm not clear that that information is available elsewhere so I've asked the Minister of Health to work with the ministry around resolving that issue.Hon Judith Collins: Does the report include data on the proportion of New Zealanders accessing specialised mental health services as it did in previous versions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again that's information that for the past 20 years has been provided through the Nationwide Service Framework. It's available online so that information continues to be publicly available. Again the Ministry of Health has gone back to reporting against those three pieces of legislation—the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act the Substance Addiction (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act and the Intellectual Disability (Compulsory Care and Rehabilitation) Act—and they have removed areas that are available in other public domains and that didn't necessarily relate to those pieces of legislation.Hon Judith Collins: When she said yesterday that there had been a change in how information is reported" was she referring to the removal of these key indicators from this report and does she really think that that's acceptable?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: As I've explained it was a decision that the ministry made to go back to the original intent of the reporting and identify information that was otherwise available in other places. Again as I've said to the member there are a couple of areas where it is not clear to me that the information necessarily is. That's an issue that the Minister and I have spoken about and I understand he'll be working with the ministry on.Hon Judith Collins: What targets if any has her Government set itself for reducing the number of times mental health patients are locked in rooms on their own and where can the public review progress towards those targets?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The ministry began seclusion reduction policy actually in 2009. So that's been something that the ministry—and I think all politicians would agree that having an aspiration to reduce down those numbers is absolutely right. So we've seen that over the course of the last decade overall we've seen the total number of hours of seclusion for adult inpatients decrease by 47 percent but in this latest year we have seen an increase in the use of seclusion. Again this is data that is reported on so obviously it is open for the public to see some of those changes in trends.Hon Judith Collins: Why was the mental health and addiction report not released until six months after it had been approved by the Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The explanation I have been given from officials—and I don't think anyone would necessarily agree that this is a good outcome. But the explanation that we've been given is that the reporting that was meant to occur on 2018 data—the decision was made because of delays that occurred with that reporting to combine the 2018-19 year. The reporting on that was also delayed during COVID-19. Again I think everyone agrees timely access to information is important. I don't think the Ministry of Health would be particularly happy with the time line in which that data was reported but that's the explanation we've been given. Hon Judith Collins: Does she agree with the journalist Jessica McAllen who said that if the Government wanted accurate reporting on mental health then they shouldn't hide information that has been published every year for the past decade in the same report?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Again this is where we ourselves are looking at: can we assure ourselves that the information that otherwise has always been in the public domain continues to be? Whether or not it's found during the coroner's reporting on suicide statistics or whether or not it's via this report or whether or not it's via the national service framework we do need to have information available to the public around how we are performing on mental health issues—so no disagreement there—and that's why we are undertaking a little bit of work to see the changes that the ministry made don't detrimentally affect access to that information.Chlöe Swarbrick: Does the Prime Minister agree that there should be a legal requirement to report clear and transparent mental health data like there is for child poverty data?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Well my understanding of course is that that's one of the reasons that this particular report exists because it is reporting on three different pieces of legislation and those regulated activities. I think one of the things that we would also agree with is in those really important areas particularly around things that may contribute to poor mental health outcomes and particularly for our young people—self-harm whether or not they can access help if they need it. Those are things that we're actually trying to pick up through our youth wellbeing surveys and strategies. So I think we shouldn't just look at the tertiary use of care; we should look at the precursors that may lend itself to children either having a positive or negative experience when it comes to mental health services.Hon Judith Collins: Does the Prime Minister agree that it makes it a lot easier for the public to be able to access information on mental health where key indicators are actually recorded and available in one report since they're on websites rather than to have information spread out over a numerous number of reports?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Just speaking to that I think part—obviously when it comes to suicide statistics I don't think naturally people would go to this report when there has been the practice of going to the annual report—Nicola Willis: Excuses!Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I'm simply responding to the question put by your leader around where people seek information. So the Chief Coroner of course has tended to be that primary source for that information and that continues to be the case. Equally the national service framework is another place where for 20 years that's where that information has been available and it's only been in recent times as I understand that that's been added to another report. So I think the intent was to try and consolidate the purpose of this report down. I can see why the ministry has done it but I can equally understand why it's caused concern."