Williams Poto: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Poto: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3174. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]POTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Mr Assistant Speaker with your indulgence I would like to greet the families and the people watching at home. Kia orana kotou katoatoa na roto i te aroa maata o te Atua.I rise with great pleasure to take a call on this bill. Most of my references will be due to the fact that I do have Cook Islands heritage but I was born in New Zealand as Mr Ngaro also previously stated. I feel very deeply the desire of the people of the Cooks and of Niue and Tokelau that we do the right thing by them with this piece of legislation because for me it is about nationhood. What is the quality of nationhood? We are members of the Realm of New Zealand. We have New Zealand passports.There is a reason that it is important for us to support the Realm countries because travelling on New Zealand passports has been one of the most significant reasons our home islands have become depopulated—because of that ability to travel so freely. So in that regard as the big brother in this context we have a responsibility to those home islands to support them in their initiatives to ensure that our populations can return home and contribute to those home islands.It is about the quality of our citizenship. To be a New Zealand citizen should be the same regardless of whether you were born in Rarotonga or in Auckland. The quality of the citizenship should be the same.What is it about being a New Zealander? I was born in New Zealand but I am very much a Cook Islands girl—but I am a New Zealander as well. When you travel back to the Cook Islands its people are very much part of the wider context of this nation. What they have done in terms of their contribution to this country has been extraordinary and we should recognise their full rights of citizenship. It was one of the issues that was raised by the contributors and the submitters. They were asking: what does citizenship mean and what does it mean when we allow our sons and daughters to pay the ultimate price for this country?This country has been supported throughout its primary industry by people from the Cooks and Niue and Tokelau. It is no secret that there are quite large populations of Cook Islands people in Hawke’s Bay because they helped with the picking of the fruit. There are large populations of Cook Islands people in Tokoroa because they contributed to the forestry industry. People from the Cooks and from the other Realm countries have supported the economic development of this country. They have supported and contributed to the culture of New Zealand.Auckland is the largest Pacific city in the world. Where would we be in New Zealand without such festivals as the Pasifika Festival and ASB Polyfest which really show the richness of our country and our heritage. Cook Islands people have a special kin relationship with tangata whenua. We have a shared migration history. Our history is interwoven with the people of Aotearoa New Zealand over and over and over again. Let us not forget the 500 soldiers who fought for this country in World War I under the New Zealand flag some of whom perished and the servicemen and servicewomen who currently serve for New Zealand.Labour supports this bill and the proposed changes but we believe they should go further. We are very supportive of the administrative changes which mean that when you are ready to apply for superannuation you can do so from the home islands as long as you have met the criteria. We are also very supportive of the fact that you no longer have to return to New Zealand to keep that application and those criteria alive and that that provision has now had some changes to it to make it easier for your status to remain active.We are very supportive of the other changes that have happened but there are a couple of things that we believe this Government should actually take into consideration. This piece of legislation after going through the Social Services Committee has come through literally unchanged. So although Mr Ngaro can talk about what National has done it has done nothing in terms of listening to those submitterstwo of whom were heads of State—Alfred Ngaro: Not true.POTO WILLIAMS: It has done nothing in terms of listening to them around their major concerns. The major concern is the 5 years after age 50 clause. When the officials were asked what the financial contribution was going to costif we removed that clause their answer was “$9 million to $21 million.” In terms of the value of the contribution of the people of the Realm to this country I would say that that is fairly small change—$9 million to $21 million.There is also another consideration. One of the submitters asked me whether I realised that if a person stays in the Cook Islands for 5 years that stay is part of their eligibility criteria to become a citizen of New Zealand. So if you can be resident in the Cooks for 5 years and that is part of the eligibility criteria to become a citizen of New Zealand how can you not then have the 5 years after 50 as a resident in the Cooks? That was the key consideration of all of the submitters bar about two or three.What does that mean in terms of what can happen in the home islands? This is something that I need to correct Mr Ngaro on in a couple of points you made. One of the points you made was that you only need to be resident and present in New Zealand for 10 years after the age of 20. That is incorrect because this bill clearly states that in order to attract 100 percent of your superannuation and have that portable to the Cooks Niue and Tokelau you actually have to be resident and present in New Zealand for 20 years. If you are here for only 10 years after that you are entitled to only 50 percent so I think you had better actually correct yourself—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order!POTO WILLIAMS: Excuse me Mr Assistant Speaker—Alfred. I think you should correct that.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! Mr Ngaro or Alfred Ngaro or something like that—thank you.POTO WILLIAMS: I am sorry again Mr Assistant Speaker—I am getting a little bit emotional about this.The other thing that is really important about the removal of the 5 years after 50 clause is that it would encourage people to move to the Cooks earlier. The whole reason that we want to look at removing that clause is that if you are already established in the Cooks as a person say in your mid-40s establishing a business or working there and you have got your families organised the requirement to come back to New Zealand to do the 5 years after 50 means massive disruption to you. You are already contributing to the home islands but then you are required to return. We think it makes much more sense to be encouraging people to move to the Cooks at a younger age as many of my cousins have suggested that they will do. They have done a lot of work in their careers here and are feeling like they can contribute to their home islands.I realise that I am just about to finish up my 10-minute call here but I want to just remind the House that 2 weeks ago there were crosses on the front lawn of Parliament with the names of Cook Islands men who fought and died for this country. For 3 days those crosses were on the lawn of Parliament. If that is not enough to encourage the New Zealand Parliament to support this bill and Supplementary Order Paper 71 to remove 5 years over 50 clause I do not know what else is. Thank you.