Naylor Jono: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNaylor Jono: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1641. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JONO NAYLOR (National): I too would like to start my speech off by joining with my parliamentary colleagues from right across this House in acknowledging today the passing of Celia Lashlie. I was privileged to work alongside Celia when I was a part of the Mayors Taskforce for Jobs and she was a really critical component to a lot of the work we did around the country. She did some great work in assisting mayors around New Zealand in the way we were working with young people. She did some great work in so many other fields that others have talked about. She was somebody who was absolutely uncompromising. It was always a challenge to be in a room with her because she challenged the way you were thinking and she challenged the way things were being done. I think she inspired us all to do a better job in New Zealand to decrease the number of young people who find their way into prisons and to decrease the number of families who were having to live in a state of dysfunction. And she was somebody who I think in her own way brought a great deal of encouragement alongside the challenges that she brought as well. New Zealand will be not as good a place for her passing so I think it is fitting that we do acknowledge that. As I said I want to join with my parliamentary colleagues in acknowledging that great work she has done.I want to turn my attention to the Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3). Of course it is in two major parts which we have been talking about: the student accommodation allowance and the loopholes there and also accident compensation payments. I want to address each of those in turn. Starting with the area around student accommodation allowances as a parent of two tertiary students part of me thinks it would be great if I could find a loophole so they would be able to generate more money because frankly that would mean that I would be better off because I would not be having to pay for so much. But that said this bill is not about what is good for me; this is about what is good for the whole of New Zealand. This is about what is fair. That is what this bill is about—it is about fairness. So from that perspective I want to address the issue of fairness—what is fair and what is not fair with regard to students in relation to this bill.It is absolutely fair that we have accommodation supplements for people in New Zealand. It is absolutely important that when some people who through whatever circumstances find themselves in a challenging position and unable to pay their rent or pay the costs associated with their accommodation our social security system provides for them. So it is fair that we have accommodation supplements. It is fair that students whether they be from my household where they qualify for loans because of the generosity of the State in providing me with the salary it does—my kids irrelevant—Chris Bishop: Money well spent.JONO NAYLOR: Very well spent I think. Anyway my kids do qualify for loans and that is appropriate so that they are able to get the kind of finance they need to find their way through their studies. It is appropriate for other students who perhaps come from a less fortunate background to access student allowances. The numbers who are able to access them are essentially even and essentially fair and I think that that is good. It is fair that students in this country have access to tertiary education which is to a large part subsidised by the Government. It is a good investment by the Government that we invest in subsidising fees so that New Zealand students can get the education that is going to help them and help our country move forward.What is not fair—what is not fair—is when we have loopholes in our system that some students are able to exploit. We know that it has been a low number but it is not fair when they are using our system to gain an unfair advantage over their peers to be able to qualify for more money. So it has been great to hear the support from most of the other side of the House—[Interruption]—apart from a particular voice which seems to be yelling constantly and not listening to a word I am saying. It is not fair when we have a system in place that ensures that we are not getting fairness in terms of what is happening here.As we move forward with this bill I just want to acknowledge a couple of things that have been said from the other side of the House. It has been interesting that I have heard accusations this afternoon that we do not care about tertiary students. Well we do care about tertiary students and we have managed to ensure that there are still loans and allowances available to students. If students in New Zealand are in such a bad state as has been said by members opposite why is it as my colleagues have outlined today that we are seeing the completion rates of degrees going through the roof? Why is it is that Māori and Pasifika are getting better and better qualifications in this country? If this Government is so bad for students why is it that we are seeing better achievement?This is a minor technical bill and it has been asserted from the other side of the House that we have let it languish for 4 years. But there has been important work for us to do over the last 6 years that this Government has been in place. You simply do not undo the work of 9 long years of a Labour Government in 5 minutes. This Government has been working hard—[Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I actually would like to hear what is being said.JONO NAYLOR: I would be keen to hear what I was saying myself to be fair. I thought it was great. Anyway as I said you do not undo the work of 9 long years of a Labour Government in 5 minutes so this Government has been working hard for New Zealand over the last 6 years to do this. We have been talking about the minor nature of this bill. Yes it might not have had the priority that other bills have had. It is of a minor nature. It is an important bill and it is one that we will pass and that we will progress. But we have had much more important things to deal with and that is exactly what this Government has been getting on with.I want to turn my attention now to the issues of the ACC payments which have also been brought up in this bill.Kris Faafoi: Oh we’ve been waiting for this.JONO NAYLOR: You have been waiting. I do not want to disappoint members opposite who have been waiting for so long.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.