Smith Stuart; Sepuloni CarmelParts 1 and 2 Schedules 1 to 3 and clauses 1 and 2STUART SMITH (National—Kaikōura): Thank you Madam Chair. It's a pleasure to take a call in this debate. I have a couple of questions I'll be fairly quick. But I note in clause 9(3)(a) it says: In performing this function the Corporation must ensure that as far as is reasonably practicable—(a) the views of Māori are taken into account in the design of the systems and processes for the income insurance scheme to ensure that the scheme is accessible to Māori and responsive to Māori perspectives;" etc. etc. which is fine and everyone would agree with that. But in clause 9(4) it says: "The Corporation must engage with Māori in good faith in meeting the requirements of subsection (3)" which I've just referred to. But then it goes into clause 9(5) to say that: "The Corporation must engage with representatives of workers and employers in the design of the systems and processes for the income insurance scheme to ensure the perspectives of workers and employers are taken into account." But there is no reference to act "in good faith" with those groups. So that by omission is almost implying that their views will not necessarily be taken as seriously and they won't act in good faith with that. So is that just an omission in the bill? Are we going to see a Supplementary Order Paper so to rectify that? Or is that what the Government intends—that one group gets selected out to be acted in good faith with and others do not. So I'd like to know the answer to that from the Minister. Also in Schedule 3 I note in clause 2 information about a person—and this is referring to the information that can be gathered on people by the ACC or the corporation. Under clause 2(a) it says: "ethnicity including self-declared ethnicity" and I'd really like to know what that means. Is that the case across Government that people can self-declare ethnicity? And does that have the same legal status as some other definition of ethnicity? I'd like to know what those are. I think these are perfectly acceptable questions on things like this. If you're going to draft—not you of course Madam Chair—but if Government is going to draft legislation it needs to be precise because if this doesn't line up with other legislation then we've got a problem and if it does then we need to be clear about what "ethnicity" means and what "self-declared ethnicity" means and the legal status of those two things.Just finally I'd like to make a little suggestion under that same clause in Schedule 3 it says "Information about a person's—… (f) visa status". I suspect we would all know with the current Minister that it will almost certainly be pending it won't be yet resolved. I would suggest that they perhaps include Minister Faafoi on their working group. Thank you Madam Chair.Hon CARMEL SEPULONI (Minister for ACC): Our intention is to work in good faith with all the stakeholders and groups that were mentioned earlier. We have been really clear from the get-go that we would not have embarked on the process of exploring this social income insurance scheme if we didn't have the support of the tripartite partners—Business New Zealand and the Council of Trade Unions. So they have been with us each step of the way.It's been also been important to us that we do engage Māori early on and we have been further buoyed by their support for us to continue this work and that is exactly what we're doing. Speaking to them about the wording in the bill they were happy with the fact that we have been so specific with regards to saying that we "must" engage. It's not "should" it's not "may"; it is that we "must". We have made that clear because of the fact that we know how important this scheme could and should be for Māori. So the intention certainly is to act in good faith with everyone. I think the difference is that from the start it was a discussion that was really with the Council of Trade Unions Business New Zealand and the Government. Then along the way we have then made sure to bring Māori or iwi on board and to keep them in step with regards to knowing what our moves might be here as well as getting their advice on how they're feeling with regards to where we're going and making sure that we're taking them with us. So I'm quite happy with the wording. I think it's landed where it has and I'm pretty sure our tripartite partners and also Māori are happy with the wording of the legislation as well."