Sepuloni CarmelHon CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour—Kelston): It's always good when there's a piece of legislation in the House that we actually agree on and this certainly is one. I have had the privilege of being an Opposition MP working with our social workers association and social workers across the country and hearing from them as well as our Māori social workers association and hearing from them.The background to this particular bill that we are working with and now looking to change is actually back to when we were in Opposition when I introduced a member's bill to this House to make registration for social workers mandatory. It wasn't supported by the Government at the time but then the Minister went on to introduce legislation and then interestingly we took office and then I was the one that got to shepherd that legislation through. So I was part of pulling this together and it has been a privilege but it was the voice of social workers and our amazing iwi and NGO organisations out there that helped to lead to mandatory social worker registration in the first place. But that doesn't mean that there aren't changes that need to be made along the way and this tonight is a reflection of a change that needs to be made. That is informed by the reality for social workers that are working out there and also some of the changes that have been made over the course of the last few years.The bill as the Minister for Social Development and Employment has said is a bill that looks to extend the period of time where we allow for the experience pathway to lead to the qualification that is required and registration for those working as social workers or in social worker roles to actually have their registration acknowledged and formally recognised in terms of registration. There's a number of reasons that have been noted by the Minister that I think are worth reiterating for why we had to extend that period. The bill itself says it is for four additional years. It was interesting this evening to hear from the Minister that she is intending to reduce that period of time—that extension—to two years. That is certainly something that we have not had brought to our attention and that we will need to consider before we get to committee stages. But the gist of it in terms of what we have in front of us for the four-year extension is certainly something that not only did we support and bring to this House but that we continue to support now. There's a number of reasons why we need the extension for those that need the experience pathway. I need to acknowledge that our social workers—the ones that are registered—do an amazing job. But there are a number of other people that are working in our social services in our iwi services for our Pacific organisations and for other social service organisations who don't have a social worker qualification necessarily—or maybe they do but they do not have registration—who potentially should be granted that through this particular pathway of experience. But there are things that have happened over recent years that lend ourselves to the opportunity to actually extend that period of time for them to be able to access that pathway. The first is workforce supply of social workers. We have to acknowledge that there has been a decline of people taking up this opportunity to become social workers going back I think to 2015 and so we are not meeting the current demand and trends are expected to continue. We need to recognise that there are people working in these organisations who actually have the skills and have the ability to become registered social workers but who need a pathway to be able to do that and haven't been able to do that yet. So that is why we want to support the extension of the pathway.Also we're acknowledging that the pay equity extension creates opportunities for the sector through the experience pathway. In November 2022 the Cabinet of our Government at the time agreed to extend the social worker pay equity settlement across the Government-funded sector. The pay equity extension will apply to non-governmental organisations receiving funding from Government agencies for social work services. The pay equity extension will lift the pay of around 5000 employees. This is actually likely to create an incentive for the many other people who are doing substantially similar work to social workers to apply for higher-paid social worker roles. They will need to be registered to work in these roles and this is likely to drive an increase in demand for the experience pathway over the coming years. That settlement was only achieved in 2022 and so that will drive the demand for people seeking that experience pathway. So it is important to acknowledge that that particular change actually is an impetus for us to extend the experience pathway to becoming a registered social worker. The pay equity extension also helps to correct disparities in access to professional development between Government and NGO employees and to remove some of the cost barriers of maintaining registration.One of the things was that actually some of the opportunities were only provided—particularly with respect to pay—to social workers that were working for Oranga Tamariki as opposed to social workers that were working for iwi organisations and other social organisations or NGOs outside of Oranga Tamariki. That correction was the right thing to do which we did in November 2022 and so it is important to recognise that that will create the impetus for them to actually go for the experience pathway.There has also been a growing recognition of the value of indigenous practice in social work and the need for an inclusive and culturally representative workforce. There has been an increasing recognition of the value of indigenous te ao Māori practice in social work which the experience pathway supports. I think that we can all acknowledge in this House that the reality is that far too often many of the whānau who have to access this support or who are accessing the support of organisations that provide the type of social support that we are talking about are actually Māori and there are many valuable people that have been working in the social sector for many years who potentially don't have the qualifications nor are they registered. However they definitely have the skills to be able to deliver to the whānau and the communities that we're talking about. So this extension of four years will allow them to continue to practise and we certainly would not want to see a gap where they are no longer able to—particularly in light of the fact that we already have workforce shortages—whilst being able to pursue that pathway to being able to become registered social workers. It was good to hear the Minister actually acknowledge the value of our Māori social workers and those that are working in the social sector what they bring and the fact that they should be allowed to have a pathway whereby their experience leads to them being able to become registered social workers and so we support that. I'm not sure how we feel about the reduction from four years to two years because that is the first time that we've heard that and that is something on which we will need to go out and consult more broadly with those affected directly.But we do support the bill and I do want to acknowledge all of our social workers our social services our iwi organisations our Pacific organisations our ethnic community organisations and our disability organisations who often are the front line where these social services and social workers are working particularly in light of the recent events in our history. Whether it be Cyclone Gabrielle whether it be the Auckland floods whether it be the cost of living crisis or whether it be the COVID pandemic itself they have been in overdrive in recent years. They have been the front-line people that have stood up to support our vulnerable families at a time when they needed that support more than ever. But regardless of whether or not we're facing a pandemic or whether or not we have other weather-related events—and unfortunately that is likely in light of what is happening with climate change—they will be needed and we continue to absolutely respect the work they do. This piece of legislation itself is just a piece of legislation that safeguards us moving forward to ensure that we have the workforce we need for those vulnerable communities. We support it.