Sabin Mike: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSabin Mike: Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 09 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9191. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MIKE SABIN (National—Northland): I am very pleased to take the last call on this very very important bill the Social Security (Benefit Categories and Work Focus) Amendment Bill. I want to commend the Minister for Social Development. I want to commend the chairman of the Social Services Committee. In fact I want to acknowledge all members of the select committee. Although we have exchanged some robust discussion in here I think the select committee has worked very very well on what has been a very challenging piece of legislation because this is a challenging area for New Zealand society.What sickens me is that those chardonnay socialists over there stand there wringing their hands about what we are doing and yet they during the boom times of this country sat by and watched thousands upon thousands of people on the unemploymentbenefit migrating on to the sickness benefit and invalid’s benefit without so much as a by-your-leave. They had their chance to do something about that and they did not.Dr Rajen Prasad: Oh come on.MIKE SABIN: That member Rajen Prasad said that this bill is a very good example of what the difference is between the National Party and the Labour Party and it certainly is. It certainly is because the difference is that this party has done something about it. So you can sit there and wring your hands and sip away at your chardonnay but this party has done something about it.This Government has done something about it and are people out there marching in the streets? Are they marching in the streets? Is talkback radio going crazy about this terrible destruction of welfare in New Zealand? No they are not—no they are not. If this is so controversial why are they not? Well they are not because New Zealanders know that this Minister and this Government have got it right—that finally we have addressed what is so important and what has been missing in welfare for so long and that is the work focus.The Children’s Commissioner summed this up beautifully. The Children’s Commissioner said that work is the best route out of poverty. Work is not a negative or punitive thing and it should not be positioned as such. The work focus the intention of this bill and the support that we are putting around individuals are crucial because we say that if a person can work they should work and that is not a bad thing. If they can work they should work. Certainly if they are in a position where they are not in work we should support them to have the requisite skills to be work-ready and work-focused.If a drug habit is the reason that they are not ready for work then we should tackle that. The first message that we should be saying to them is that if it is good enough for other New Zealanders out there in the workforce who are helping support you in your time of need—not you Mr Assistant Speaker obviously—who are helping support those people then it is good enough for those individuals to be drug-free as well in the interests of having a safe and productive workplace. That is a very important thing. It is called a social obligation.I will come back to the Children’s Commissioner. What did he say in the select committee about that? What did he say about social obligations? He said that it is a normal part of life—it is a normal part of life. Social obligations are a normal part of life. Every New Zealander faces that in the workplace. They face that right across society and in clubs and voluntary organisations social obligations are a normal thing. The reality is that rights and choice must be balanced against responsibilities and obligations. That is also a normal part of life.This is an extraordinary bill. This is an extraordinary bill because what it does is address the underlying issues that have dogged our welfare State for so long. This Government has shown and this Minister has shown the determination to do it. New Zealanders wholeheartedly support it and the more that that party rails against it the more those members had better get used to wearing out the leather on that side of the House because that is where they are going to stay and long may that continue.We back New Zealanders into work. We back them to have the skills. We want them to have the opportunities that we should all have and this bill does that. I commend it to the House.