O'Connor Greg; Rurawhe AdrianGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. It gives me pleasure to rise to this bill the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill after much of the heavy business of international politics and finance. We could have come back here on the first day to something that is really bread and butter politics here or bread and butter legislation I should say because this is the type of thing that actually does impact on people's lives. It's not going to impact just on the social workers it's not going to impact just on the social work profession but it's actually going to impact on those they deal with.I had the privilege of sitting through the Social Services and Community Committee and we heard a range of submitters. One of the things that did strike me is one of the submitters who talked about where they were accompanied by someone who purported to be a social worker called themselves a social worker and as far as those taking the advice of that person were concerned they were actually a social worker. It turned out they weren't the advice was terrible and it just highlighted the need to ensure that when someone is administering advice that is actually life-changing and is going to be heavily influencing decisions people make they must have the confidence that that person has been through some sort of a screening system—that they are professional. And that's what this bill really does address.I was fortunate to come to the committee after a previous profession I was in where I was working with my Australian colleagues to try and work through a registration process for policing within the eight Australian states and New Zealand. And that gave me an understanding of the need to understand for those who do call themselves a police officer like those who call themselves an electrician or those who call themselves a doctor—as referred to by the previous speaker—that it is important that there is actually an element of trust or understanding that to do that you have come to that position with a suitable level of training and understanding of what it is you should be doing. That project is still ongoing; trying to get eight Australian states to agree on anything—last I heard they had different gauges on their rail lines so that may well be something left to my successor's successor. But coming back to New Zealand again I talk about the need—when we talk about social workers so often we are talking about the traditional dealing directly with people who really need assistance to be able to participate fully in mainstream society or just get back on the horse or to do whatever—they're going through some sort of period in their lives. But it's much more than that the social workers—I mean I had a personal experience myself. I had a child who was at death's door and one of the pieces of advice I got from the then social worker at the hospital was Think about where you're going to bury this boy if he dies." Now that is something that was it actually turns out very good advice. I can say he didn't die but it actually did turn my mind to those issues that people who had been experienced in that situation before who knew what was going to come up knew what's going to happen—and that was actually having someone experienced in that position and that person was a social worker. As people go through different aspects of their life they will encounter social workers who are practising a profession and understanding a body of knowledge that they are putting into practice that is absolutely essential. So just going back to what a social worker will be: it will be an offence to call yourself a social worker if you're not and that's important and I think that really lies at the basis of this. So if you are dealing with someone who is a social worker who says they are they will be and we can understand they have that level of understanding. They have to have a prescribed qualification be competent to practise as a social worker and be a fit and proper person. And again part of the element of a profession is to ensure that there is a governing body over that. A very important part of this is the competency to practise with Māori and other ethnic and cultural groups and to have enough practical experience in practising as a social worker—all those things that are incredibly important.In my short time left to me I'll just speak about the matter that has being talked about the scopes of practice which will be the subject of a Supplementary Order Paper. It became clear from listening to submitters that the fear will be that simply—one of the previous speakers talked about 8000 social workers in the last census but that could very quickly drop down to 2000 if the profession is not defined. So there is going to be an important bit of work and I look forward to being part of that discussion part of that debate during the committee stage of the bill. So thank you Mr Speaker. I commend this bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I call Hamish Walker—five minutes."