Sepuloni Carmel: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSepuloni Carmel: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 18 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4590. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): Kia orana fakalofa lahi atu and taloha ni. It is a privilege to speak on the third reading of this bill. I want to acknowledge all of our Cook Island Niue and Tokelau - New Zealand residents living in New Zealand and all of our Tokelau Cook Island and Niue people living in the Realm of New Zealand countries.We come here today all in support of this bill with one minor—or not so minor—point that we disagree with. Listening to the Minister for Social Development there was much of what she said that I agreed with; some of what she said I thought: “Hang on a second that’s not actually correct Minister.” One of the points she raised was that all New Zealanders must meet the 5 years after 50 rule in terms of 5 years having been spent in New Zealand over the age of 50 regardless of where they live to be able to access their superannuation.We know—and this has put forward through a Supplementary Order Paper—that actually there are countries where we have a reciprocal pension agreement. They are countries like Australia the UK and the Netherlands where actually they can access their pension there without having to spend 5 years in New Zealand between the ages of 50 and 65. What we have been asking for alongside New Zealand First is that that same exemption be given to these three countries which have a special constitutional relationship with New Zealand. Actually if any citizens were going to be exempt from that 5-year rule it should be the three countries that are actually part of the Realm of New Zealand. So to hear the Minister go on and say that there is no justification or rationale for an exemption well actually I think that that is incorrect and the submissions that we received from people like the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands and the Premier of Niue actually should have been enough to persuade the National Government and to convince it that an exemption was warranted in this particular case.Many of us of Pacific descent in this House have an understanding of the importance of returning to the Pacific country that we came from. I myself have a father who was born and raised in Samoa and who has now in his later years gone back to Samoa to invest in the land to renew the plantation and to get people working on that plantation. It has made a huge difference to our family over there in terms of—here is this plantation that was not touched for almost 30 years and now there is this whole family that has found this renewed interest in the land that had kind of been left to itself for just a long period of time.Niue the Cook Islands and Tokelau have the same possibilities and we have an opportunity here to support these citizens to return to those countries to invest in their own countries and to contribute to their economic development. For the Minister to say that that investment can start at age 55 or that that investment can start in those years but they must still spend 5 years here between the ages of 50 and 65 well actually that is not good enough.One of the biggest issues that we have been told about by these countries is that we have depleted them of their major resource—their major resource—that being their people. We look at places at Niue which now has a population of something like 1200 people. How can it develop its economy with 1200 people when we have 24000 of its people in this country? Those are 24000 people who have contributed to this country not only to our workforce to our sports fields to our academic credentials but also—and I think this is really important to point out—serving under the New Zealand flag alongside our military at war. Yet we have a Minister and a National Government who cannot give that one exemption that was asked for that being to exempt them from the 5-year rule between the ages of 50 and 65.If we had had agreement on that one small point I think we would all be celebrating in the House today. We would have consensus here and actually we would be happy with each other. But when we walk out the door today and we go and talk to our Niue Tokelau and Cook Island communities yes we can say that we have made some arrangement so that the portability has increased for them so that they can go back earlier and they can contribute but not to the extent that we think we should have.Let me just say that members on that side of the House need to know that when we walk out this door we will be saying to our Cook Island Niue and Tokelau communities that yes there was consensus overall for the bill but we were disappointed Labour was disappointed that National could not understand the rationale or see the justification for exempting our three Realm countries from that one rule that would allow them to spend 15 of their years between the ages of 50 and 65 back in their homelands. Exempting them from that one rule would have allowed them 5 additional years between those age groups to contribute to the economic development of their own countries. National would not agree that the historical and constitutional ties we have with those three countries were enough to actually warrant an exemption. So we will be going out there and voicing that to our communities.Actually already I did see that my colleague Poto Williams did put something up on social media and the reaction she got from the Cook Island community about the fact that the one Cook Island MP in the National Party could not convince his National Party colleagues to support that one exemption was actually—let us just say they were outraged that had happened. You know we know that regardless of whatever ethnicity we are there are ideologies philosophies and ways of thinking in different political parties and this is one of those examples where actually the rest of our community gets to see that that exists regardless of ethnicity that there is a philosophy and ideology that comes with an individual depending on which political party they are in. That has proven itself today and with this whole discussion around the bill.I am not sure actually whether I have more to contribute to this discussion. The point I wanted to make today was that actually yes we are happy to support this bill. We are disappointed in the National Government that it did not understand the rationale for exempting Niue Tokelau and the Cook Islands from the 5-year rule. We will be letting our communities know that that was the case but in the very least this is a step forward. It is a step towards recognising the special relationship we have with the three Realm countries. I will end on a positive note and say that at the very least that is a good thing. Thank you.