O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): I stand to speak on the Social Security Legislation Rewrite Bill. Like so many things when you first come to the House when we get a new piece of legislation before us it is something of an awakening an understanding. As someone who just likes to look at the history—and someone looking at my age would say I've been part of some of that history—how we've arrived at where we are today I think it's pretty important we understand that. I see that this piece of legislation went back to 1938—the Social Security Act of that year. I'm reminded of going through an elderly uncle's—great-uncle's actually—belongings after he died and reading his diaries. He was one of those people who was unemployed during the Great Depression the sugar-bag years. Seeing a slip of paper that he'd kept where he was ordered to go to a work camp and leave the family behind—it was necessary for him to do so just so they could survive. So it's really important we do understand in our history of where we've arrived and why such legislation was important.What makes New Zealand so much different from many other places—and I think those who are critical of our system we have today who think somehow it's too soft I invite them to go to places that don't have systems like this in place and they'll understand just why we have it and how it is something we should be so proud of. So something that really forms the basis of that which we are so proud of in New Zealand should be updated. It should be something that's modern and it should be something that is relevant. So the rewrite bill obviously is the second time this has been done. The Social Security Act 1964 was passed—Andrew Bayly: Looking forward to hearing about this bill Gregory.GREG O'CONNOR: As I say to those members just understanding that life is a building block; you can't fix things just one little short thing without a full in-depth understanding. If that member would sit down and be quiet he would just understand and he will get such a necessary lesson.The Social Security Act: the Minister in 1964 then talked about the present Act—nearly 26 years old—being amended approximately 30 times. It is extremely difficult to follow both by the general public and by those whose responsibility it is to administer the Act. For that reason alone the Government thinks a consolidation is well overdue. I come to this Act and why we need to rewrite it. Well it's just long overdue for a rewrite. There are over 500 sections in the current Act and only four remain unchanged while other sections have been repealed or amended sometimes hundreds of times. Again I go back to one of the most important pieces of legislation that makes it our point of difference so often with the rest of the world. It will make social security legislation easier for people to navigate use and understand—again bringing the legislation into line with the modern times.I speak about one particular aspect of it that is straight from the bill. This one Mr Bayly will be pleased to know has the rewrite bill talking about the role of nurse practitioners in the new legislation. Although I only have one minute and 10 seconds left Mr Bayly I will endeavour in this time to educate you through the bill.The rewrite bill enacts existing provisions allowing nurse practitioners to give certificates to certify that the capacity for work of an applicant for job seeker support on the grounds of health condition injury or disability is affected by their health condition injury or disability; the nature of this problem; the extent to which their capacity is affected; and how long it is likely to last. Once again in bringing this into modern times—nurses. We've seen in so much other legislation that nurse practitioners have been given so many more other roles that were the sole province of medical practitioners in their day. So this again will ensure that for those who it is absolutely necessary—they do get the assistance.There is a little bit of an attitude that anybody who is on welfare is in some way undeserving: It's about time they got off their backsides." I think that so many of the other failures that we have bring people to that place so it's important that when this time in their lives arrives we have a fair modern piece of legislation which ensures they get what they need. So I commend this."