Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veterans Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:653;Page:2251] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to stand in the Chamber tonight and support the Social Assistance (Payment of New Zealand Superannuation and Veteran’s Pension Overseas) Amendment Bill. As society changes it is important that legislation keeps abreast of those changes. This bill represents change because our society in New Zealand has changed. It has become a lot more multicultural and a lot more global. 
Many families now have children grandchildren and siblings who live overseas and who intend to stay overseas and not come back to New Zealand. My own family is an example of that. I have a mother who lives in New Zealand and a sister who lives in Sydney. I have four cousins. One of them lives in Sydney and another lives in Brisbane. In my own family we are global so when we need to get together as a family when grandparents want to see the grandchildren or when we want to visit our siblings to keep the family unit together we have to get on a plane. Our society has changed and people are travelling a lot more especially the elderly. They are travelling a lot more to keep that family unit together by visiting their siblings their grandchildren and their children. This bill is a result of change in our society that has meant that parents and grandparents now have to travel and they do travel. 
New Zealand has also become a very multicultural society where a lot of siblings and grandchildren live permanently in countries where the grandparents originally came from. For example grandparents are going back to India or Asia for months at a time to visit their family. 
This legislation is very positive and is keeping abreast of the times. Even though travel costs have reduced many people who travel are on fixed incomes. Many elderly people save to go away but if they lose their superannuation while they are overseas they get into a bit of financial hardship. Not everybody who travels is wealthy and a lot of people—especially the elderly—save to visit their family because that is a priority in their lives. 
This bill makes it easier for older people to travel or live overseas. The new provisions represent a modernisation of the overseas policy payment that has been in place since 1990. The Government is committed to ensuring that our older people are able to live in dignity and to participate fully in their community whether that community is in New Zealand or in another country and whether they participate in that community for 1 week 1 month or 6 months. It is important that they participate and that they have dignity while doing so because they do have income. Forcing older people to remain in one country or preventing their ability to travel to a variety of countries serves no particular purpose and is not in tune with the desires and aspirations of today’s retirees. 
The Government is amending the legislation as the current system offers limited options. The current rules are preventing many of our older New Zealanders from moving to the country where they would like to live or from travelling overseas. The current policies generally reflect the universal and resident-based nature of New Zealand’s system and provide good protection for most New Zealanders. However the recent review identified a number of specific issues with the policies on the treatment of overseas pensions and the payment of New Zealand superannuation and veterans pension overseas. 
The key change is a new more generous maximum payment. Instead of the current flat rate of payment older New Zealanders will be able to receive up to 100 percent depending on the number of years they have resided in New Zealand. The bill will also free up the rules that restrict the ability of superannuitants and veterans pensioners to move around once they get overseas. It will allow payments to be made to those people who wish to reside in any country with which New Zealand has no social security agreement whether they remain in such countries or begin travelling. It will also allow payment of superannuation and the veterans pension to those qualifying superannuitants and veterans pensioners who travel to or in or between any countries. 
The amendments contained in the bill address the three issues with the current general portability provisions. The amendments will ensure fairer and more equitable treatment for superannuitants and veterans pensioners who wish to travel or reside overseas. The bill also proposes some technical amendments that will resolve some prior drafting errors and existing inconsistencies between the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954. The bill amends the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954 to make it easier for older New Zealanders to travel or live overseas. The new provisions will represent a modernisation of the payment overseas policy that has been in place since the 1990s. 
The key features are first the payment of New Zealand superannuation and the veterans pension overseas based on a formula of 1/540th of the full rate for each month of residence in New Zealand between the ages of 20 and 65. Second payment of New Zealand superannuation and veterans pensions will be made to superannuitants and veterans pensioners travelling to more than one country. The National-led Government is committed to ensuring that our older people are able to live in dignity and participate fully in their community whether that community is in New Zealand or in other countries. 
The purpose of the bill is to amend the legislation as the current system offers limited options. The current rules are preventing many of our older New Zealanders from travelling and from seeing their families. Currently there are three main ways in which New Zealand superannuation and the veterans pension can be paid to people resident overseas: general portability agreement special portability agreement and social security agreements. The current policies generally reflect the universal and residence-based nature of the New Zealand system and provide protection for most New Zealanders. 
However the recent review identified a number of specific issues with the treatment of overseas pensions and the payment of New Zealand superannuation. There are three main issues that this legislation will address: the flat rate of 50 percent provides insufficient income to allow a reasonable standard of living in many countries; the current rules restrict the ability of older people to move to more than one country because payment is linked to residency; and payment overseas at present is linked to residence overseas and older people who wish to undertake long-term travel in another country or travel between countries cannot continue to receive their payments. Because of those issues the bill will make the three main changes. 
The key change is the more generous maximum payment. Instead of the current flat rate of payment older New Zealanders will be able to receive up to 100 percent of New Zealand superannuation depending on the number of years they have resided in New Zealand. Secondly the bill will also free up the rules that restrict the ability of superannuitants and veterans pensioners to move around. Thirdly it will allow payment for those people who wish to reside in any country. The bill also proposes some technical amendments that will resolve some prior drafting errors and existing inconsistencies between the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act 2001 and the War Pensions Act 1954. 
I look forward to this bill coming to the Social Services Committee and to the submissions that we will listen to. The last time this bill was amended in 2001 there were 269 submissions and I am sure there will be great interest in this bill this time as well. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Barker.