Upston LouiseHon LOUISE UPSTON (National—Taupō): Thank you Madam Chair Tolley. I'm pleased to speak on this new part put forward by Ian McKelvie. Mr McKelvie has put a lot of thought and effort into how to actually ensure that the legislation is delivering on the Labour-led Government's intention. One of the things that I think is important is that this part of the committee stage gives the opportunity for the committee to contribute to the improvement of the legislation. The Retirement Commissioner is independent has a really important role in terms of ensuring the well-being of retired persons in New Zealand and as those—[Interruption]The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Order! Sorry. Could the member have respect for the speaker.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Madam Chair thank you. So for those that have been watching parts or all of this debate they would have followed the significant impact intended by the Labour - New Zealand First - Green coalition around this package that is being introduced today. While many of us in the House will disagree with parts of it none of us would disagree with the need to improve the lives of low-income New Zealanders and part of that is being able to—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Order! Sorry. Can I just ask the Hon Jacqui Dean to resume her seat. It must be awfully difficult for the speaker.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Thank you Madam Chair.Hon Ruth Dyson: Quite difficult listening to it.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: So it is really important and I know that the Hon Ruth Dyson doesn't think that this stage of the committee is important for the public but when a bill is put through in urgency that is not being enforced and put into place until 1 July it is the opportunity for the committee of the whole House of Parliament to bring these issues to the fore because the New Zealand public don't have a chance to. So I do think it's important.I do think that Ian McKelvie has raised a really important point in the opportunity for the independence of the Retirement Commissioner to assess the impact on an annual basis to report on the impact of the Families Package (Income Tax and Benefits) Act of 2017 on the well-being of retired persons.My colleague the Hon Amy Adams did bring to the committee's attention some of the limitations I guess it's fair to say pointed out by the regulatory impact assessment. So this provides another opportunity that's been lacking in the short time frame in which the Government has attempted to throw this bill together and actually to throw something together that would be better for New Zealanders than what we had proposed in our time.But this is then being able to say right with things like the winter energy payment which is a bit curly in terms of eligibility and people capturing it or not—Hon Steven Joyce: It's not for winter and it's not for energy.Hon LOUISE UPSTON: Yeah it's not for winter it's not really around for energy. So this gives the ability for the Retirement Commissioner to assess the impact for New Zealanders to be clear about what the impact of this intended piece of legislation has and as I said Ian McKelvie has considered this at great length. And really we'd come back to the objectives that the Government has put in the bill itself around targeted social assistance—targeted social assistance to improve incomes for low and middle income families. And it will be interesting to see the first report of the Retirement Commissioner because I'm assuming that the Government wants to measure the impact of their changes.So I'm assuming that the Government will be accepting this amendment in Ian McKelvie's name. They've talked about openness and transparency they've talked about the impact on real people so I am taking the step of assuming that the Government will be supporting this amendment in Ian McKelvie's name and that we will then be able to see in a year's time a report from the Retirement Commissioner on the well-being of retired persons who of course make up a large percentage of the New Zealand population and it's growing. So we do want to ensure that policies that speak like this actually deliver the intended outcome.So I am pleased to support my colleague's amendment to insert new Part 3 which involves the Retirement Commissioner's ability to measure the impact.