Simpson Scott: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSimpson Scott: Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7148. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): I do sit on the Health Committee which is so ably chaired by my friend and colleague the member for Tāmaki Simon O’Connor. I listened carefully to his contribution earlier in this debate as I also listened carefully to the words of the Minister of Health in introducing the Home and Community Support (Payment for Travel Between Clients) Settlement Bill for its first reading. I have to say that I was mindful of their comments when listening to Opposition speakers contributing to this debate because I think that in just listening we can hear across the House that there seems to be broad consensus and appeal for the aims and objectives of this bill. It is a bill that seeks to implement a settlement agreement that has been developed amongst a variety of stakeholders including the Crown district health boards and the very providers of home help support and community-based care and support services. That is an interesting range of stakeholders who collectively and collaboratively provide a wonderful level of service to a great many New Zealanders who need and have a requirement for care in their own homes.I have the great privilege of representing the Coromandel electorate and one of the features of the Coromandel electorate is that it has the second-highest proportion of any electorate in the country of people aged 65-plus. It is a vast rural electorate with a lot of older mature citizens many of whom retire to the Coromandel because they want the lifestyle they like the communities they like the environment and all those sorts of things. But as they age they do often need support and care in their homes and the mere logistics of getting around the vast geographic area of the Coromandel electorate means that it is these support care workers who are having to in many cases clock up a lot of miles a lot of kilometres a lot of time and a lot of energy in providing the services that they do to a far-flung but ageing population. They do enormously good work sometimes under incredibly difficult and trying circumstances and I am thrilled that this bill goes I think some way certainly toward remedying a situation that has been in need of addressing for a long period of time.All the evidence suggests that if people are to age well and maintain independence and seek a connection with their community and their family and their environment more often than not they do it better if they are still in their own home. We have seen those statistics feature again and again and again and of course many people who are ageing want to maintain the dignity that comes with being independent and with living in their own home. For that to occur when they need that help and support they are going to need the help and support of other people to ensure that they can maintain that independence and that dignity of being in their own home.I am delighted to support this bill in its first reading. I too will look forward to the submissions that I am sure we will receive from a wide range of stakeholders at the select committee and I am sure that the committee will work in its normal collegial and thorough way to ensure a good outcome for this piece of legislation. I support the bill and commend it to the House. I will look forward to it progressing through the House in due course. Thank you.