Hide Rodney: War Pensions Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Hide Rodney: War Pensions Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
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RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 I rise in support of this bill. Let me also congratulate the Prime Minister and the Prime Minster’s staff on actually taking a keen interest in veterans’ affairs issues and on hearing veterans’ concerns directly in her office. I think she did a mighty fine thing and I think her staff did a mighty fine thing. If we are going to progress the cause of veterans it requires that we put aside any politics so let us not make politics out of caring for veterans. Let each of us commit as individual MPs and as political parties to doing a better job. It is very easy for members of the Opposition to bash the Government for not doing enough then find themselves in Government and not doing very much. I congratulate the Prime Minister on meeting with the veterans and on progressing this bill. 
I also take the opportunity to congratulate the Office of Veterans Affairs and in particular Colonel Jessie Gunn. She has presented the Office of Veterans Affairs with a human face and an understanding heart with regard to the concerns that veterans have. Does that mean that everything has been solved and that every veteran’s concern has been taken care of? No but in order to do that we need to commit more resources. Veterans do not need fine words from politicians. What they need is a commitment and resources so I favour fewer fine words from politicians and more action. 
As we look around this great debating chamber I want to make this observation also. The most powerful things in it are the wreaths symbolising all the great battles in which our armed forces personnel—New Zealand soldiers men and women; New Zealand airmen and women; New Zealand navy personnel men and women—have served and died or been wounded physically and mentally. Each year we go off on Anzac Day and honour the fallen. We honour the battles and the sacrifice made in them so many years ago. It seems to me that we do that because in a funny way it is free; because those men and women whom we honour then are dead. The last surviving World War I veteran has died. 
My concern of course is to honour those who have made the greatest sacrifice of all for their country but spare a thought for those men and women who served our great country on foreign fields because politicians like us directed them to. Politicians directed them into harm’s way—which they went into voluntarily—and they saw and suffered terrible things on our behalf and at our political direction. I myself cannot imagine it. I would not have the heart to do it but men and women did. I look at Bill Gudgeon here today; he actually did that—and I salute him and them. I ask that we spare a thought every day for the men and women amongst us who served our country with pride and distinction and carry the scars. Not all the scars are ones that we can see. Not all the scars involve a missing limb or a damaged body. Some of them involve a scarred mind. Years later a veteran closes his or her eyes at night bad images flash back and that man or woman suffers. 
I say that there is no interest in anyone in this House playing politics because we are looking after those great men and women who served their country when they were young. We should just do it. We should congratulate the Prime Minister and indeed this Government on doing what they have done. We should congratulate them too on making a distinction between civilians on a benefit and a veteran receiving his or her pension or disability allowance because there is a fundamental difference. A beneficiary in hard circumstances might be entitled to a benefit but veterans served this country at political direction and that is why they are on that pension and indeed why they have disabilities. Let all of us from every political party be generous to them and realise that it was politicians in this House who put them in harm’s way and saw the damage done to them as young men and women. 
We should also understand this: it is my observation of veterans that they are different from the rest of us because they served. It is not their nature to turn up and ask for a handout. We should never think of a veterans’ allowance or pension as a handout because it is not. It is a payment for service. It is a payment for the damage done to mind and body during that service. We must bear in mind that a man or woman who puts him or herself in harm’s way in a foreign war zone is a proud person a strong person and a proud Kiwi. It is not in their nature to put their hands out. It is my observation that when a veteran comes for help he or she is at the end of their tether. They are not trying it on and we should respect that. The rules that apply to veterans should not be the same rules that we apply to everyone else because they have served. No one else can say that. Mr Gudgeon can; I cannot so we should respect that. 
I think it is great that veterans on a disability allowance can now work hours. It has been explained to me and I have observed it myself: sometimes the best rehabilitation is to do a bit of work but sometimes a veteran suffering terribly from post traumatic stress disorder cannot make the transition to full-time work. I think that everyone in this House now agrees that what we had operating before was cruel and inhumane. It is cruel and inhumane to say to a veteran that if he or she attempts to get back into the workplace and suffers and misses some days then he or she loses the pension. Again I congratulate the Prime Minister and her office for taking on the veterans’ concerns and doing something about them. 
I ask members of this House to reflect on these few words: to do a better job of looking after veterans we all must agree. Opposition members of Parliament must chide and chivvy the Government along whoever is in power to make those concerns a priority and keep them that way. But let us not do that in a way that plays politics. Let us do it in a way that is well meaning and good-natured—just like those men and women who went off to serve. When they put their bodies and minds in harm’s way they did not play politics; they did their job. Let us try to do the same. Let us give Colonel Jessie Gunn and her staff our utmost support and praise for the very difficult job that she must do. I do not know of a tougher job than that of looking after veterans and I do not know how she copes sometimes. What I do know is that she could do with a lot more help and resources so I plead with my fellow employees to give her that.