Luxon ChristopherCHRISTOPHER LUXON (National—Botany): Look it's a real pleasure to stand and take a very short call on the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Fair Residency) Amendment Bill third reading.As we've talked about this started off life with MP Mark Patterson obviously from New Zealand First—and I'm sure he's listening and following proceedings today—and he should feel justifiably proud about where this is going. It was transferred through as we talked to Andrew Bayly—I'll come back and talk about him in a minute. And then obviously everyone's feeling incredibly proud of the work of the Finance and Expenditure Committee in the way that bipartisanship broke out and people worked very constructively with each other. And that's a good thing. I didn't get to participate in that committee but having read some of the summaries and the papers it's great that the bill was even further improved yet again.As I said I do want to come back and congratulate my colleague Andrew Bayly. I've only been in the House a short time but I can tell you it doesn't feel that often that Opposition MPs get their members' bills all the way through to law. What we know about Mr Bayly is that he is passionate about fairness and I think this is an example of that bill. But if you ever watch one speech I'd say in this House in the last three months watch his speech talking about the plight of small-business people dealing with Auckland. That was a heartfelt speech where he cares deeply about small-business people—the people that stand up go to work take a risk raise their kids right pay their taxes do the hard work give it a go take a risk and make something happen. He spoke so eloquently about them.Getting back to this bill the real heart of this bill is obviously around raising the minimum residency qualifications from 10 years to 20 years. And you know when you think about why we're doing that we clearly have a very much expanding population. We obviously have people living longer. But this is one of the most expensive items on the Government's balance sheet. In fact it's probably one of the biggest items on the balance sheet and it's only going to get more and more expensive as people age over time. The second thing is really it's about aligning to world standards because as we've heard New Zealand has one of the most generous and therefore lowest residency qualification periods in the OECD. Emily Henderson just went through some other countries that have obviously much more longer provisions and we are now bringing ourselves into alignment with the OECD and other countries in the world.I guess the other thing is why we're doing it. It's fundamentally right that we do do it because it's important and fair that we recognise people who have made a contribution to New Zealand that have made a big commitment to New Zealand that have paid their taxes day in day out month in month out year in year out. I think this bill is recognising there are rights and also responsibilities to being a New Zealander in this country. Yes you get a right to be able to receive a superannuation but you have a responsibility to make a contribution to make something happen and to contribute to the country.Some of the other big bits I guess that were fixed up through the select committee process was obviously the risk of course of having made a change like this is in the transition period that you end up actually cutting off some hardworking individuals or new New Zealanders who are so close to that retirement age who have built their future and their plans around that assumption and then all of a sudden at the last minute you move the goalposts on them. And really the work of the select committee in conjunction with Mr Bayly set in place a delayed bill implementation of two years and when you think about someone's birthday happening after that it's effectively a three-year delay before the transition plan starts on a staggered basis—I think that's a very sensible schedule that essentially Mr Bayly explained in his reading as well.I guess the final thing and the final piece of work which is so important is it carves out refugees and it also carves out citizens of the Realm. I remember when I was at Air New Zealand we had a lot of staff up in the Cook Islands but as they got to the end of their career they would end up having to come back to New Zealand in order to qualify for superannuation. This bill would now mean that they can stay up there as critical workers as engineers working in the Cook Islands for example and not have to come back home in order to just qualify for their superannuation.So I think it's on balance a really great thing. It's a fantastic thing that we're doing here. It's the right thing to do. It's good for New Zealand. It's fair and balanced. And I just want to say again congratulations to my esteemed colleague Andrew Bayly on this achievement. Thank you.