HEALTH ACT

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 283, 24 August 1940, Page 13

HEALTH ACT

First Amendment For Twenty Years HOUSE PASSES BILL

“This is the first time for 20 years that there has been any amendment to the Health Act. Many of the things proposed in the Bill have been in practice and are now given legal status,” said the Minister of Health, Mr. Armstrong, when moving the second reading of the Health Amendment Bill. It was put through all stages and passed in a little over an hour and a half.

Explaining the clauses, Mr. Armstrong said that the section giving protection from civil or criminal liability of persons acting under authority of the Health Act was deemed necessary so that inspectors might be able to take up a more courageous attitude in preventing the spread of infections diseases. Similar protection was given in the Australian Act and, he thought, in the English Act. He was informed that the regulations, for the making of which additional power was provided in the Bill, for the registration of drainlayers aud funeral directors, were well under way. How far they would go remained to be seen. The clause concerning drainlayers, had been approved by the Municipal Association. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Hamilton: By the counties? Mr. Armstrong: I have not been informed whether the counties have approved. Notifiable Diseases.

The Minister explained that the clause making three venereal diseases notifiable diseases would give the department statutory authority to take action.

Mr. Broadfoot (Opposition, Waitomo): Does that mean there will ba a better check on the problem than in the past? The Minister: Yes—better cheek, better control and power for isolating certain cases, which the Health Department cannot exercise under the law as it exists today. It says there is no desire to depart from the measures of secrecy, but it is essential that recalcitrant sufferers should be dealt with effectively. Mr. Broadfoot: Great progress has been made in Norway and Denmark, and I was wondering whether we could not follow in their footsteps. The Minister: The department is following other countries, and this clause will give it greater power to deal effectively with the problem. The purpose of another clause, said Mr. Armstrong, was to make every form of tuberculosis notifiable. He explained, in conclusion, that he was not the “father” of the Bill, which was drafted before lie became Minister. Not Deemed (Joutentious. “When the Minister tells us that it has been 20 years since there has been an amendment, it will’ be realized that the Bill is about due,” said Mr. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga). Those wba studied the Bill would agree that it could not be regarded as contentious. War usually brought in its trail a series of epidemics, and the House, he thought, would approve of giving the Health Department greater powers. Answering objections by Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Dickie (Opposi lion, Batea) to the regulations covering drainlayers, Mr, Armstrong said there was no intention to make it compulsory for drainlaying or plumbing to be done by registered men in the country. Instead of a drainlayer, say, in Auckland, being required to obtain 13 permits, one would be given by the Health Dcparf.meut.