O'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Pro Rata Entitlement) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeO'Rourke Denis: New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Pro Rata Entitlement) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 16 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:6734. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First): This is a debate that needs to be had in much more detail than has been possible tonight. It is a debate about superannuation which has many problems as every member in this House knows and which needs desperately to be addressed but the National Party will not do it and the ACT Party will not do it—not just because they do not understand it but actually because they do not care about it and they do not care about the people who are badly affected by it. If they think that there are not people who are adversely affected by it then I invite them to go and talk to the 70000 people who are adversely affected by section 70 of the Social Security Act. Then they will get an earful that they cannot bear because for years on end the rest of us have dealt with these people in our offices and we know that there is a problem there that must be addressed.I want to refer to David Bennett’s awful speech. First of all he is entirely wrong about the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Pro Rata Entitlement) Amendment Bill being anti-immigrant because this bill treats everybody exactly the same whether they be Kiwi expatriates returning to New Zealand or whether they be immigrants or anybody else. This bill treats everybody exactly the same and it would not matter at all whether they were an immigrant or a Kiwi so he is entirely wrong about that. He is also entirely wrong about the bill having any impact on means testing. It does not even refer to that so that member cannot possibly have read the bill—or if he has he has not understood it.This bill is only about fairness really and it is in no way discriminatory. New Zealand political parties need to front up about New Zealand superannuation they need to front up about its problems and they need to solve those problems. We all know that it has massive problems but Jami-Lee Ross is wrong about the pro rata system discouraging Kiwis from working overseas and then returning to New Zealand. The opposite is actually the case and the reason for that is that they will earn an overseas pension while they are overseas because the countries where they work are the countries that require that to be done and they will also earn other overseas savings. Those are the pensions and the savings that will be deducted under section 70 of the Social Security Act when they return to New Zealand and that is the reason they will currently not return—because of that section; that section which this bill actually abolishes.I did want to refer also to the Greens’ concerns which are rational and understandableat least. However I would have to disagree with them that this bill erodes universality. It does not erode universality. It alters only the amount of New Zealand superannuation not the entitlement which would still be universal. I agree however that there may be a problem with the words “born in New Zealand”. As I have said this bill is negotiable. If those words are a problem New Zealand First is more than happy to negotiate about that and if necessary to remove those words—and indeed any other detail that may be said to be problematic.There are already many exemptions for some of the people listed by Ms Logie and that is already the case in the current superannuation system. Those sorts of exemptions could easily still be built into and apply to a pro rata system as well. Also I would have to disagree with the Greens over the words “borderline racist”. Nobody in this House has yet made a speech that shows how this bill could be racistin any possible way. There is actually no justification whatsoever for that claim. It has got nothing to do with that. It has got to do only with a fair system for the New Zealand taxpayer in respect not just of immigrants but also of returning Kiwi expatriates.Mr Bayly said that pro rata would be difficult to administer and that he was struggling with the merits of it. Well he struggles with just about everything but this bill is not difficult—