Mitchell MarkHon MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker and it's my pleasure to take a call on the Statutes Amendment Bill. The Minister did very well to get his composure back. I'm not sure whether it was that he hadn't read the speech or whether it was something that his colleagues said to him but anyway I do feel his pain because this Statutes Amendment Bill is actually a very important bill. The reality is that it's an omnibus bill and it makes minor technical changes. So it's not like it's just for those who have got nothing better to do on a Thursday evening than watch Parliament TV. It's not a bill that we're going to debate in great depth around each of these changes. Because it's an omnibus bill they are very small minor technical changes and the Parliament uses a bill like this to be able to make a lot of changes through the passage of one bill. It saves the Parliament a lot of time.If you will bear with me Madam Assistant Speaker I was going through some of the changes—the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 and the Veterans' Support Act 2014—and I wanted to acknowledge that we still have the Minister of Defence in the House we still have the Minister of Justice and we had a very heartfelt speech from one of my colleagues Harete Hipango relating to her brother's service as well. I just wanted to touch very quickly on the fact that when I saw the Terrorism Suppression Act it reminded me of a lot of work that I'd done with David Shearer when we both sat on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. I was lucky enough in our last recess to travel down to South Sudan and visit David Shearer who is the UN Secretary-General's special representative there which means that he's heading up UNMISS the United Nations Mission in South Sudan.To give you an idea of the challenge that he has South Sudan is geographically about the size of France. It has no infrastructure—I mean no infrastructure. It has clay roads and its main supply route is the White Nile which comes from Port Sudan through Khartoum down to Juba. He's got tribal warfare that's been going on for centuries. He's got corrupt politicians that he has to deal with. They're right in the middle of a civil war trying to broker a peace agreement and he's got 160000 internally displaced people that the UN are actually providing security for and protecting. I was lucky enough to go with him to visit one of those camps so that I could have a clear understanding of what they're actually dealing with. I want to acknowledge him and I want to acknowledge the leadership that he's providing in what is a very difficult situation.The reason why I was there is that in my previous role as Minister of Defence I received a request from him asking for more support from our Defence Force. At that time I thought that was definitely the right thing to do and I signed it off. I was pleased to see that the incoming Government and the Minister continued with that commitment and so I wanted to go down there I wanted to visit them and I wanted to see how they were doing on the ground and the challenges they were facing. I really wanted to be sure—as someone who doesn't have a high level of confidence in the UN—that our people were being supported properly from New York. And you know the great thing about David Shearer is that if anyone can achieve something down there a man like him can do it.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): This is a great valedictory for our former colleague but is this relating to the Armed Forces Discipline Act or the Terrorism Suppression Act? I'm having some difficulty identifying just which part of the Statutes Amendment Bill the member is referring to.Hon MARK MITCHELL: I understand that Madam Assistant Speaker and I thank you for your tolerance because I knew that I was stretching it a bit—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): It might not last.Hon MARK MITCHELL: —in terms of bringing it back to the Terrorism Suppression Act and the Veterans' Support Act—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you.Hon MARK MITCHELL: But I wanted to acknowledge our people down there and the work that they're doing.As I say this is a highly technical bill and we go right from the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002 right through to the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Act 1965. I mean you know people might wonder what that's about. I can see Rino Tirikatene over there. He's definitely wondering what it's about. So quite simply what it is: Clause 155 provides that Part 42 amends the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Act 1965. Clauses 156 and 157 repeal the Long Title and insert a purpose provision that is based on the repealed Long Title and on section 18(1)(a)."Brett Hudson: Tell us more about that! I'm not really interested in that.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Well I'll tell you about clause 158: "Clause 158 amends section 13 to add new functions to the Board. The amendment enables the Board to spend money 'to increase public awareness of the Fund and to promote the other functions of the Board and the purpose of this Act'." This is actually really important because what it means is that the board can function a lot more efficiently and they're obviously funding projects and local groups. So although these are small and technical and I come back to the Minister's opening comments they do often make a real difference in terms of governance and how people are actually trying to go about their work. We often have debates in this House about red tape and compliance; so it's actually nice to be able to make technical changes that get rid of some of that red tape and compliance.If I go back to the Veterans' Support Act we've had a lot of contact with the veterans over the last few weeks with our repatriation project that's been ongoing. Again I just want to acknowledge our Defence Force personnel and the great work that they're doing. The veterans the Minister and I had a talk about this the other night. The veterans of course had a big part to play in that. If it wasn't for their work over decades actually in terms of bringing petitions to this House and making submissions to a select committee we actually would never be repatriating. They had a massive part to play alongside some of those families as well. I want to recognise them and acknowledge them."Clause 150 [of the Statutes Amendment Bill] provides that Part 41 amends the Veterans' Support Act 2014." and "Clause 151 amends the definition of working day in section 7 to exclude the relevant province's anniversary day. This aligns the definition of working day in the Act with several other legislative definitions of working day. It will avoid confusion about when applications and correspondence may be processed and when statutory time frames start and finish." So it is another good example of a minor technical change but one that will actually make it much easier for people to understand what paperwork needs to be submitted and how they actually engage in the process."Clause 153 removes the reference to an ACC entitlement in section 271(1). Section 271(1) mirrors a provision of the Accident Compensation Act 2001 but the provision does not apply to the Veterans' Support Act 2014." So it is another very good example of where the Veterans' Support Act 2014 was not aligned with an earlier Act which is one that is obviously a much bigger Act and has a significant impact on people's lives and that's the Accident Compensation Act of 2001."Clause 154 amends clause 2 of Schedule 1 to allow for certain older pensions to be adjusted to keep pace with the New Zealand Consumers Price Index (CPI). The pensions are those payable under section 29A of the War Pensions Act 1954 and Part 5A of the War Pensions Regulations 1956." This is very important because this does relate directly to pensions making sure that they do remain aligned with our CPI. "The pensions are preserved by clause 2 of Schedule 1 as if the Veterans' Support Act 2014 had not been passed but it is appropriate to allow for their adjustment in line with the more modern approach taken in section 31 of automatic updating in accordance with the CPI"—Brett Hudson: That's very interesting. That's good.Hon MARK MITCHELL: —well—"(rather than requiring the rates to be adjusted to the same effect by amendment regulations every year." So that has stopped actually having to go through a regulatory process and it's actually now just an automatic annual update. So that's very sensible. It's technical but it is very sensible.Now if I come to the State-Owned Enterprises Act this is another one that I saw Rino Tirikatene—I know that he seems very interested in this one as well. Let's talk about the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986.Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: Did you talk about 91?Hon MARK MITCHELL: No but if I have time I'll come back to that. I've run out of time. OK. "Clause 127 provides that Part 37 amends the State-Owned Enterprises Act 1986. Clause 128 repeals section"—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): I thank the member. We can all read that. We probably don't need you to read that out to us. It would be much better to be explaining the impact of the changes to those clauses rather than reading the clauses to us.Hon MARK MITCHELL: It was more for the viewers Madam Assistant Speaker—Brett Hudson: Many viewers.Hon MARK MITCHELL: —and for Mr Tirikatene. Yeah the many viewers watching this—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Poto Williams): Thank you. It's been very entertaining.Hon MARK MITCHELL: Thank you very much Madam Assistant Speaker."