Sio William: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSio William: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:549. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Su’a WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Māngere):I rise to support the Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill and to congratulate the Government on this particular bill. I recognise that this is something that the Pacific communities have asked for.I recall that in the 1970s Albert Wendt wrote a book called Sons for the Return Home. That book captures the essence of the dreams and aspirations of our Pacific communities in that day and age. When the wave of Pacific people first landed on the shores of Aotearoa there were jobs. In fact my uncles used to joke about how they could quit one job in the morning and find another job in the afternoon. Unions were strong. They were well paid. They had State housing and after a year or so in State housing they were able to save some money of their own to buy their own house. At the time there was a child benefit on which you could capitalise and which you could use as a deposit. In fact the loan was guaranteed by the State at that time—a 3 percent loan for 30 years. That was how my parents got to own their own house. With dad working mum stayed at home and looked after the kids. When we came home there was a cooked meal prepared. Those were the days when that was available. There was full employment even—I think one Prime Minister said during that period that he could count the number of people who were without jobs. How times have changed—how times have changed.Although I welcome the Government’s move in terms of this bill I think our communities are not going to easily forget the things that have happened in the last 6 years. I will say a little bit more about that later on. But this bill is welcome. It is something the communities of the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau have asked for. It is also something that other Pacific peoples are agitating for and more recently so. There is a phrase in Samoan that I would use: O Tangata ua galo. It means: “These are the people who have been forgotten.” The reason for this is that we call the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau realm countries. They are New Zealand citizens. For some reason or other we tend to forget that quite easily. So I welcome this move.I often ask myself why it is that a person living in the Cook Islands Tokelau or Niue has to come here to New Zealand to apply for the pension. When you think that the people of these countries in addition to the many other Pacific people who came to this country and worked during the manufacturing boom are also those who came and served in the initial New Zealand Expeditionary Force that went to Europe and fought in the wars on behalf of this country and on behalf of England. In fact it was Māui Pōmare who travelled to Niue and the Cook Islands explicitly to try to recruit people to fill the Māori Battalion numbers that were asked of Māori at that particular time. Since Māori themselves were still up against the wall in terms of how the Government of the day was treating them at that time Māui Pōmare decided to travel directly to the Cook Islands and Niue.Many of these people who fought on behalf of New Zealand died and are still buried overseas. There are other markers here in Aotearoa New Zealand of where some of these people are buried. The point I am making is that this move towards allowing people to leave New Zealand at the age of 55 to go back and reside in the islands and to then be eligible for the pension at 65 is a good move. It will be widely received by the Pasifika communities. But I think that as part of the work that the Social Services Committee needs to do it needs to be asking whether these are still the forgotten people. Are there other things that Aotearoa New Zealand needs to do in terms of ensuring there is consistency? After all these are people of the Realm of New Zealand. They are New Zealand citizens. They are not foreigners. Why do we then continue to treat them as if they are on foreign soil when they are indeed part of the Realm of New Zealand?In fact Sir Anand Satyanand made a point at every speech he made of always greeting and acknowledging the languages of the Realm of New Zealand which are Māori English Cook Island Niuean Tokelauan—and I might add that because Samoan is the second-most spoken language it could also be argued that Samoan and Tongan are languages of the Realm of New Zealand.Carmel Sepuloni: And sign language.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: And sign language—that is right. Sir Anand never failed to use his sign language.The select committee will probably need to ask about these issues and make sure that there is wide publication of the opportunity to make submissions on this. I suspect that when the public makes submissions they will go beyond what this bill may entail. I would hope that the select committee does not just throw away the input from the wider community but that it puts it aside and perhaps makes further inquiries as to the further work this Parliament must do in order to address those issues I would regard as O Tangata ua galo—the people whom New Zealand has forgotten. These are the people of the Realm of Aotearoa New Zealand.It says in the papers that are available that they are still required to meet the criterion that is currently in place—the criterion being that they must be resident in New Zealand for 10 years after the age of 20 and 5 of those years must be after the age of 50. Yet the point I was making earlier is that if they are resident in the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau is that not still part of the Realm of New Zealand? Are they still required to be resident here for the sake of meeting the old criterion which does not change at all? What about those who are serving in the public sector in these realm countries? Are they not also entitled to the same treatment that public servants receive here in Aotearoa New Zealand given that they are part of the realm? I would hope that the select committee continues to look at those particular areas.I note that it is not the first time that this has been asked. In a recent meeting during the campaign both the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands and the Premier of Niue made the point—and I think they were feeling a little bit frustrated because I suspect there may have been promises made but I am glad that if this is what they were looking for then certainly they should be proud of the way that this Government is moving. But as I said earlier in my opening statements the fact that this is being done the fact that I suspect the Pacific community would welcome this does not release this Government from the poor standard of response that it has given the Pacific community of late because in the last 6 years unemployment has continued to rise and unemployment is at 11.4 percent.In the last 6 years the income for Pacific people has been declining. The median income for Pacific people has been declining and for Auckland I can say it was $455 per week at the end of 2008; at the beginning of this year it was $379. Child poverty is a significant issue that hovers over our community not just the Pasifika community but communities right throughout Auckland. I would say that currently the single biggest issue that will have a rippling effect on the future of this country is the fact that we have unaffordable housing—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! That is not part of the bill.Su’a WILLIAM SIO: —with people in situations of homelessness. The point I am making is that times have changed. When I told you about Sons for the Return Home—the book that Albert Wendt wrote—those times have changed. Today it seems as if one cannot help but wonder whether this Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill has been timed strategically to counter some of the negative impact of this Government’s policy on the Pasifika community today not just what I have outlined but also the outsourcing of Pasifika programmes from Television New Zealand. That too is a strong signal that this Government does not care about Pacific people so despite what it does with this bill—