Goudie Sandra: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Goudie Sandra: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:639;Page:9154] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 National is quite clear about the fact that it actually supports the Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill—let me make that very clear. However I am sure that at the first announcement that there would be a super card entitlement bill the Rt Hon Winston Peters went out celebrated fell asleep at the wheel and has not woken up since. Otherwise he would quite clearly understand the— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairman. That is an outrageous allegation. I tell that member that unless she withdraws and apologises right now then I will take it much further than that. I will not have somebody get up and talk about me going out for a celebration and falling asleep at the wheel which is demonstrably false. The member knows that so she should now withdraw and apologise or take the consequences. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: The member has taken offence at that. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: I withdraw and apologise. It can be quite clearly— 
Heather Roy 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairman I would like to know why it is acceptable for the Minister to make outrageous comments about other members in this Committee which he has done continually throughout the debate but it is not acceptable for members to make comments about him. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: It is sort of borderline. Of all the personal reflections or comments that are made certain ones are outlawed. In the case of others if the member concerned takes exception to them then we require a withdrawal and apology—that has been done—and we move on. The comments are not acceptable but I think most members know that if a member who is the target of those comments takes exception to them then that is the way we deal with it. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: It is quite clear that the Minister has lost the plot. Here is a Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters who thinks that the New Zealand Law Society submission on the bill was rubbish. That was said during the second reading of the bill I think it was. The Minister could not understand the fact that as the Law Society pointed out the bill actually provides regulation-making powers for cardholder photographs— 
Hon Tau Henare 
: Is this the microchipping bill? 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: We are talking about the SuperGold discount card that is being touted here. 
But I make it very clear that the bill provides for regulation-making powers for cardholder photographs to be on entitlement cards. That is not just the SuperGold card discount card. It includes the SuperGold discount card but it means any entitlement card. That is why I say to the Committee again that the Rt Hon Winston Peters has lost the plot because he fails to understand that very very clear distinction. He also fails to understand that it is also about making regulatory powers for microchips to be embedded in entitlement cards. That means any entitlement card not just the SuperGold discount card. 
When will the Minister get that right? And when will the Labour members of the Social Services Committee and the other Labour members who are speaking on this bill get it right? I have not heard one of them get it right and that is in spite of the New Zealand Law Society making that abundantly simple and clear in its submission to the select committee. National members got it; we understood it. We raised some concerns about microchipping and the issues around photographs during the first reading. That is why that came under discussion at the select committee. It is about time that the Minister the Rt Hon Winston Peters got a grasp of what is really happening here but I do not see that being about to happen in a hurry. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Look who’s talking! 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: This is the Rt Hon Winston Peters. We actually need an interpreter to understand what he says in the Chamber these days. If we look at the New Zealand Law Society submission we get a very very clear understanding of what is being said here and what is intended in this bill. 
Yes we support the SuperGold discount entitlement card. It is a good initiative and everybody applauds what we can do for our senior citizens in regard to that. That is great. But while we are at it our concern is about the regulation-making provision. Again for the benefit of the Rt Hon Winston Peters who fails to grasp the fundamentals of what the New Zealand Law Society is saying I say the bill—clause 4—does change the purpose of the Social Security Act 1964 and it changes it for all entitlement cards. It has nothing to do with the SuperGold card per se. This issue is about all entitlement cards. I have gone to great pains to make that abundantly clear. How could it be made plainer than that? 
I challenge the Minister in the chair the Rt Hon Winston Peters to take a call and perhaps say he does understand the New Zealand Law Society submission after all. But I would not hold my breath on that one. I think we would just hear another line of verbal wordage—whatever one wants to call it—which nobody really understands these days. It is a crying shame that there has been a loss of the plot.