Hide Rodney: War Pensions Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
Hide Rodney: War Pensions Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
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RODNEY HIDE (ACT NZ) 
: 
 It is a great honour to follow Mr Bill Gudgeon who is one of the now few members of this Parliament who have served overseas. There was a time when it would be hard to imagine getting elected to Parliament not having been a returned serviceman. We are fortunate indeed to have the experience and insights that Mr Bill Gudgeon brings us. He has been on patrol in the jungles of South-east Asia with a band of brothers and he knows full well what those of us who have not served know—what it is like to serve. He also knows what it is like to come back to New Zealand and what it is like 30 years on when driving a motorcar down the road to still be reminded at a moment’s notice of something that happened so long ago. It is an honour to follow him in this debate. 
This is a bill that reflects well on this Parliament. It is also one that reflects well on this Government. We have at long last I think gone some way towards addressing the special concerns of veterans in this country and I commend the Government for that. I also think it bodes well that this Parliament is of one voice in agreeing that this bill is right and proper but that we as members of Parliament have to work together to do better for our servicemen and servicewomen. We have to do that not just because it is right and not just because there is an implicit promise to every serviceman and servicewoman but because of a very practical pragmatic reason. Everyone I believe—I think I can count on my Green colleagues on this—wants us to have a strong military. We want servicemen and servicewomen who are professional who are competent who have high morale and who are good at what Governments ask them to do. I cannot imagine that anyone in this Parliament would say otherwise. We might disagree about how they should be deployed where they should be deployed and how they should be resourced but it is in the interests of every member of Parliament that we have a good competent and professional military. 
We have been reminded in these times watching television nightly that a man or a woman who puts on a uniform without being consulted without being asked for his or her opinion can be sent into harm’s way. Once those service people have those uniforms on their lives are at risk their bodies are at risk and their minds are at risk. I think it is important that the young men and young women who are thinking about signing up to serve with our services can be confident that if they are damaged in war and if they are damaged in service to their county during peacetime—damaged not just physically but psychologically and emotionally—then whatever Government is in office they will be looked after because they are men and women who have served. If we do not do that how can we expect to have a good military? It is not enough just to pay well—and we all believe I think that they should be better paid and better resourced—but there has to be a concern about how a serviceman or a servicewoman will be looked after following service. 
So I think we have made progress with this bill and I think we have made progress with this Parliament because the best thing we can do is to keep politics out of this. I do not hear of anyone standing up in this House and saying that we should not be doing what we are doing. I think it is right that Opposition members chide a Government to do better but let them remember that when their term in Government comes they too are honour-bound to look after our servicemen and servicewomen. I congratulate the Prime Minister and this Government on this bill and on the moves they have made. I chide them for not going far enough but today is not the day for that. I congratulate this Parliament on its support for veterans and—I say this to Mr Gudgeon—on still having veterans here who truly know the horrors the thrills and spills and the scars and tears of service. 
It is important also that we put on the record the important turn-round in attitude that has occurred in the Office of Veterans Affairs. There has been a 180-degree turn-round and that has been achieved by the efforts of the Prime Minister and—I do not think the Prime Minister would mind if I took something away from her—by the good work of Colonel Jessie Gunn and her staff who have turned round a department that treated veterans as beneficiaries on the take trying to pull a fast one to an office that is special and understands that veterans are special—that they are proud people who do not easily put their hands up. Mr Gudgeon is right: the Office of Veterans Affairs has to go looking for its clients because they can lie out there in our country for 30 years badly damaged badly scarred and too proud to put up their hands and ask for help. It is important we recognise the work that Colonel Jessie Gunn and her staff do. They do what they do on a very very modest budget and they have to cover the whole country. I am sure that as MPs we have had one or two veterans come through our doors. I am sure that we realise what a tough job it can be tending to the needs concerns and issues that confront them and their families.  
On behalf of this Parliament we should all salute Colonel Jessie Gunn for the work she does. For the first time in many many years we have in the Office of Veterans Affairs a leader who empathises with the plight of veterans and who does not see the Office of Veterans Affairs as a cost-centre to be administered. Veterans—from whatever theatre from whatever age from whatever period—are seen as proud servicemen and servicewomen who need to be looked after for the simple reason that they donned a uniform and served their country and who have for the rest of their days a contract with the Government that we are duty-bound and honour-bound to uphold. Let us all agree on this: Colonel Jessie Gunn has done a wonderful job.  
This bill is a good one. Let us strive as a Parliament to do better. Let us strive as a Parliament to support the Office of Veterans Affairs and to get it some more resources. All our pious words are nothing without the necessary resources that are needed to look after our veterans so that we do honour the promise of a land fit for heroes.