Penk ChrisCHRIS PENK (National—Helensville): Thank you very much Madam Assistant Speaker and thanks too to other members of the House who've spoken already in support of the bill and it's heartening to see that support across the House appears to be forthcoming and I acknowledge the Minister with us today. It's an easy matter to support a piece of legislation that includes the words veterans" and "support" in it. That's certainly a good start in combination—and please allow me to join others in thanking for their service those who have served in the past do so in the present and will do in the future as well.If you'll indulge me for a moment Madam Assistant Speaker just to reference within my electorate of Helensville the major New Zealand Defence Force facility there—RNZAF base at Whenuapai is about to have a change of command and I thank the base commander Group Captain DJ Hunt for his service.We've been talking about a drafting shortfall. Of course to err is human and to forgive divine. The act of forgiveness I think in this case is pretty easy when there's been no intention of any sort of political partisan gain in terms of having the original legislative process passing through. Indeed the fact that this is supported in a non-partisan manner across the House I think has contributed to a generous spirit by all to simply move forward and do the right things by our veterans. We've had reference already to the fact that the legislation prior to the 2014 Act had talked about war and emergencies as opposed to operational service more widely and the need for that good bit of work to take place and I acknowledge the previous Minister Michael Woodhouse for his work in that along with other colleagues of the previous Government.Of course the intention that the responsible Minister would be able to make declarations of qualifying service is an intention that needs to be met by the legislation itself for the aid of clarity for the aid of certainty and for enabling interpretation to be correct and in accordance with the letter of the law. So it is that we are ensuring that we have not only a strong indication about the types of deployments that would enable a serviceman or a servicewoman to qualify but in fact that that would be readily apparent to all concerned and that of course is the point of the exercise. I don't need to take my full allotment even within this split call and delay much further. But I'll just note before I do resume my seat that there is a retrospective element in the legislation whereby declaration can be made by the Minister regardless of whether the deployment began before or after the commencement of this Act. Retrospectivity in legislation tends to be frowned upon when it's in the realm of criminal law and when it's to the detriment of those who are most directly affected. Neither of those applies here. It's perfectly appropriate in constitutional terms and I think as a matter of fairness more generally. So what we're left with in terms of considering the legislation before us is the test that the Minister from time to time will apply which is whether there's been a significant risk of harm in considering whether any particular employment is qualifying or not. That seems to me pretty good as a test but no doubt the select committee will consider that albeit in a reasonably truncated way and hopefully throughout the process a good constructive approach will continue to be taken and we will see its passage in due course. Thank you."