Unkovich TanyaTANYA UNKOVICH (NZ First): I stand on behalf of New Zealand First in support of the Social Workers Registration Amendment Bill. The Social Workers Registration Act 2003 provides these mechanisms to ensure the safety of the public and to also enhance the professionalism of social workers. This Act established something called the Social Workers Registration Board and this acts as the regulatory authority which is responsible for the registration of social workers. And it also established the Social Workers Complaints and Disciplinary Tribunal also known as the Tribunal to exercise disciplinary powers over social workers.This bill is proposing to go through with the amendments but before I speak on this current bill I would like firstly to acknowledge all of the hard-working social workers who are out there and who are contributing greatly to our community. I like many others through lived experience decided to go and study and many of the people out there at the time when I was studying 20 years ago towards a diploma in counselling had to do the social worker certification first. And coincidentally I met with a friend who is still in that role and she is still just as fulfilled 20 years later as she was when we were first studying together.It's a difficult task. It's a difficult job. You sometimes have to speak with six individuals in a day each one of those individuals carrying a lot of suffering and it is up to you as a social worker or as a counsellor to give just as much attention to client No. 6 as you did to client No. 1. So I just want to speak about this just to acknowledge the social workers out there and how important it is that whether it be through legislation or other means supervision they are really taken care of because so many individuals who go there and share their deepest pain and suffering are relying on their expertise their compassion and their acceptance in order to be able to work through what they are going through.Often you think about your clients and you go Gosh I wonder how that person is." Then all of a sudden they pop up and you see that you've made a change in their lives. This is why the legislation is so important: so that our social workers are taken care of they are monitored and they are accountable because at times the client - social worker relationship is one where the client is incredibly vulnerable and some may say that it is an imbalanced relationship. So it is important that everything is kept in place in order for both client and social worker to be kept safe. Sometimes it's about changing one person at a time in order for a community to change. Hence it is important that standards are set and standards are maintained in this industry—hence the need for this amendment bill that we are speaking on today.It is important that standards are maintained as I mentioned before. It can be a heavy task a heavy job a very fulfilling one but one where you carry a lot and by having these updates and amendments in place the social worker knows that they are being watched but also in a compassionate way. And that is one of the things I would like to stress in my contribution today: everyone makes a mistake and it's important that social workers are held and supervised in an appropriate way; hence the need for the five-year review which takes place. That way we can keep an eye on whether there are safeguards in place—are there registration processes in place? How are we safeguarding not only the public but also the social workers themselves?I know I've come from a bit of a different angle here Madam Speaker but this is one of the reasons why New Zealand First is in full support of this bill. We commend it to the House."