Smith NickHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): Thank you Mr Chairman. It is not my intention to pursue issues in respect of clause 1 and the title of the bill but I do want to raise some questions with the Minister in the chair Carmel Sepuloni about the complexity of the four different commencement notes on different parts of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill. The first thing I want to note that's quite odd in the commencement clause is that there's no sort of logical working around it in the sense that some of he provisions come into effect on the day the bill receives Royal assent some of them come into effect three months later some two years later and some five years later. It doesn't even follow in that order I'd repeat to my colleague. But actually I do want to ask some questions of the Minister about the justification for those variations.Now my first question is with respect to it being five years that you can continue to be registered as a social worker on the basis of prior experience—that is under clause 2(2) referring to section 10. What we're effectively saying is that if you're not qualified you don't have a degree in social work that's provided by a number of our institutions and you want to get registered as a social worker we're effectively giving five years. I do suggest to the Minister in the chair that people will take as much time as they have got. Now I was responsible for a law that requires all homes to be insulated something I think has pretty broad support across the Parliament and we're all sitting here a bit frustrated four months away from 1 July this year. The longer you leave for people to do it—do we really need to leave five years for the time frame in which someone has to apply to the board for registration as provided for in section 10? That takes us all the way out to realistically 2024. Is that really justified that five years in which people will be able to get registered by prior experience? My view is that people who are social workers who don't have degree should be able to get on and get that process under way beforehand.Then my second part that I'm confused by is the two years before the penalty provisions that are changed in clause 63(1) come into effect. Now any piece of legislation such as this which is introducing a requirement for social workers to be properly registered is only as good as the penalties that apply and I've not heard any justification from the Minister as to why you would stretch out for a period of two years before any of those penalties. Why would that provision not come into effect on the date that the legislation gets its Royal assent?Then the further part that just adds to the confusion around when this bill is commenced is with respect to the changes in the make-up of the registration board. Currently the registration board is made up of 10 members with six that are social workers and four that are not. The select committee and the bill changes that from four social workers to three and yet we've got this funny provision in a new subclause (2A) in clause 2 Commencement" that says that the time frame for that provision change has got to be three months. Now I've been through the Cabinet process often and I'm pretty familiar with appointments. Why is it that we have to wait three months for that provision to come into effect and given that you've got sections 4 7 8 13 63(1) and (1A) and 65(2) all coming in under a different time frame wouldn't it be easier for us to have a more straightforward commencement clause and to bring those provisions all in at a similar time? I think it is particularly confusing that you have got the changes in the make-up of the board that registers social workers changes in the time when people are able to use their prior experience and changes when the new penalties come in that are all over four different time frames. It makes for a bit of a muddled commencement clause."