Jackie Blue - Maiden Speech to Parliament

Madam Speaker, may I offer my congratulations to you on your re-election as Speaker and congratulate Clem Simich on his role as Deputy Speaker.

In 1999, on the 7th of October, I was in the public gallery listening to the Honourable John Banks give his valedictory speech. Little did I know that six years on, the roles would be reversed and I would be giving my maiden speech in the House and John Banks would be in the public gallery listening to me. Indeed, if anyone had even suggested this was a possibility, I would have thought it totally bizarre.

John Banks has been my cheerleader on the sideline and I would like to thank him for his support.

But there are current members of Parliament who I would like to thank for being here today. One of them is the Honourable Annette King. That may surprise you, Madam Speaker.  I will explain.

While my deliberate path to politics started only a few years ago, looking back, I can see now that it actually began 13 years ago.

It began in 1992, when working as a general practitioner, I was asked by Auckland breast surgeon John Harman, to train as New Zealand's first breast physician.

Breast physicians are doctors specialising in the diagnosis and follow-up of women with breast conditions or concerns. John was visionary and charismatic. I had no hesitation in leaving general practice.

Together we set up the first truly multidisciplinary breast centre in New Zealand. Over time, this model has been reproduced in centres all around New Zealand.

History needs to recognize John Harman. By pioneering the multi-disciplinary breast centre in New Zealand, he has raised the standard of how women with breast problems and concerns are managed and treated in this country.

I worked hard in my new profession, campaigned tirelessly for breast cancer screening and over time built up a solid reputation.

But my work as a breast physician was new and threatened traditional medical models. Very early on it became clear that breast physicians needed to be formally recognised. This was achieved in 1999 with Medical Council recognition.

However, try as I might – and I tried very, very hard – I could not get formal recognition with BreastScreen Aoteaora, the national breast screening programme.

I was extremely frustrated. It was John Harman who advised me to attend a Wellington Medical Women's Conference in July 2001 to specifically lobby Annette King, the then Health Minister, who was opening the conference. 

Madam Speaker I even bought a new red jacket to wear so I could be more appealing to Annette King.

I went to Wellington and, as fate would have it, also speaking at the conference was a Wellington general practitioner, Dr Mary English. At the conference dinner that night I spoke with Mary and she introduced me to her husband, Bill, who happened to be the Deputy Leader of the National Party.

It was a pivotal meeting for me.  As a result of my friendship with Mary and Bill, I knew that I wanted to help in some way. They encouraged me to join the National Party in Auckland.

That is where my political life began and that is why I must thank Annette King for giving me the opportunity to meet Bill and Mary English.

Madam Speaker, the irony is that breast physicians who have worked in the breast screening programme since its inception in late 1998 are still not formally recognised. This is quite strange really when we have a critical lack of workforce that threatens the implementation of our breast screening programme, particularly to the younger women. Clearly, my work is not yet finished!

2004 was a busy year for me. I was elected on to the Auckland District Health Board on the Citizen and Ratepayers NOW ticket.

Earlier that year I had been voted on to the National Party Northern Region List Ranking Committee. In November 2004 I had been involved in the selection of my colleague Dr Jonathan Coleman for Northcote. I had absolutely no intention on standing for Parliament. I was in the business of selecting the candidates.

Fate, however, was to step in, and one week before Christmas, Dr Don Brash approached me at a National Party function and asked me if I would consider standing.

It was a simple question, but it floored me.  I have the greatest amount of respect and admiration for our Leader Dr Don Brash, and so I went away and thought long and hard over the Christmas break. Like a lot of people, I was extremely unhappy at the direction New Zealand was heading.

It was a make or break election for New Zealand and the National Party.  I wanted to do what I could – whatever it took. I took the plunge, and in early 2005 I was selected to stand in Mt Roskill.

After the elation of being selected to stand in Mt Roskill, my emotional state alternated between excitement, despair and terror.

Being a novice, I anguished how on earth I could pull a campaign team together, deliver a respectable result against my seasoned and well respected political opponent, Labour MP Phil Goff, while not embarrassing or humiliating myself or the Party on the way through.

Again fate intervened by way of Nick Albrecht, who generously agreed to be my campaign manager even though he had his hands full being Maurice Williamson’s campaign manager.

My wonderful, talented campaign team was quickly formed: Charles and Leigh Hay, Ram Rai, Ian Andrews, Aaron Bhatnagar, Gillian Moody, Sean Palmer, Simon O’Connor, David Cooke, Gareth Jenkins, Surendra Sharma, Josh Beddell, Malcolm Butler, Dale Burden, Stephen Sharp, and Margaret Voyce, who has also joined me in my Wellington office.

My extraordinary thanks must go to my family who are here today – my husband, David Miller, is an exceptional man who has unconditionally supported me throughout my career, with the wisdom of knowing when to steer a wide berth and to haul me in when I get out of line.

I would like to acknowledge my beautiful daughters, Jessie and Paddy, my mother, Doris McHale, a strong woman and loving  mother  who grew up in the depression and would have gone far if she had had the educational opportunities,  my father-in-law, Austin Miller, who, incredibly at age 75, is still working fulltime.

I would also like to acknowledge my late father, Stewart Aitken Strang Blue, who served in World War ll as an Army Major and dentist in the Middle East.

They are all here today. I am so proud of them all.

Also here today is my twin sister Robyn Blue, my niece Ruth Egermayer and her aunt Vera Egermayer who is New Zealand's honary Consul in the Czech Republic.

I would like to thank other family and friends who have travelled to be here today and those who are listening over the air-waves.

I have worked for over 20 years in the private health sector, the past 13 years in the breast cancer field. I would like to share with you some thoughts.

Breast cancer is a major public health issue. It is increasing in both developed and developing countries. Why is this? It is clear that the total estrogen exposure over a lifetime is implicated in breast cancer development. This links reproductive, dietary, lifestyle and environmental factors. All these factors either increase levels of estrogen in the body or affect the way it is metabolized.

There are some things we can’t change, such as age of menarche and menopause.  There are other factors that will depend on individual choice and opportunity, such as when women decide to begin a family or how many  children they have.

However, there are some things we do have control over and can modify, and that is diet, lifestyle and environmental factors.

That is where we must focus our efforts if we are ever to hope to get future control over this disease.

Using the scientific evidence available, a targeted programme to reduce breast cancer risk is urgently needed .It is really about getting New Zealanders healthy – exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, a moderate intake of alcohol, a diet low in animal fat, and healthy choices in food.

That basic programme will also form the central strategy to tackle other public health enemies - diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and other cancers.

However, specific to breast cancer development is the effect of long-term hormone replacement therapy use and the growing body of evidence supporting the influence of foreign oestrogens which are found in some herbicides, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.

The here and now is that we face an increase in the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer.  Though a public health strategy will help in the medium to long-term, it won’t help women right now.

What we need right now is an effective national breast-cancer screening programme, and that means solving our serious workforce issues, understanding the extent of our breast cancer problem (which requires a comprehensive national database), and timely access to appropriate treatments.

These goals, along with the formation of a national consumer based advocacy group, were the objectives of the Breast Cancer Advocacy Coalition, formed in November 2004, and representing 12 key breast cancer organisations.

Access to more effective breast cancer chemotherapy treatments and revolutionary drugs such as Herceptin, which has been shown to markedly reduce breast cancer recurrence, must be opened up.

But these life-saving drugs are expensive. New Zealand is Third World when it comes to access to new, effective drugs.

The economic growth that would have been kick-started by National’s tax policy has been lost.

Only wealthy countries can afford to pay its health workforce well, invest in infrastructure, new drugs and technologies. Tragically, New Zealanders will have to wait three more long years.

I mentioned earlier about the need for a focussed public health strategy to get New Zealanders healthy.

Changing behaviour won’t be easy, but it can be done. It must be done. We don’t have an option.

Madam Speaker, the organisation Fight the Obesity Epidemic, or FOE, is one of the organisations leading the way. They have just launched a petition to be presented to Parliament later this year. I predict that public support and the will for change will be massive. 

The experts on that team are warning that social marketing and education alone will not change behaviour – there also needs to be a change in the regulatory framework.

I have worked in the private health sector for over 20 years and I would like to make a plug for it.

It is a resource that is ready, willing and able to help. The private health sector, by necessity, has had to be competitive, efficient, cost-conscious, consumer focussed and profitable.

The public health sector, despite having billions of dollars poured into it, has become bloated, overly bureaucratic and bogged down with ever-expanding waiting lists.

We are losing our precious medical staff overseas. We cannot compete with international medical salaries. That is a fact of life.

Boosting the private health sector could entice back many of our health professionals. Many specialists have a part-time private practice to support their public practice, and this could encourage doctors to settle back in New Zealand, particularly in the provinces where there is a desperate shortage.

By encouraging utilisation of the private health sector, the burden on the struggling public sector will lessen. Encouragement could be by way of a tax incentive for those who elect to have private health insurance.

Madam Speaker, the National Party has given me the important portfolio of Liaison with Women’s Groups.  I am absolutely committed to this task. In the 21st century it is not acceptable that there still exists violence to women and children, an increasing gender pay gap, and under-representation of women in many professions.

In conclusion, I am enormously honoured and proud to be here representing the people of New Zealand. I have no idea where this particular path is leading me, but I would like to assure Parliament and people of New Zealand that I will serve them with integrity and to the very best of my ability.


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