Lees-Galloway Iain: Veterans’ Support Bill — First ReadingText is subject to correctionLees-Galloway Iain: Veterans’ Support Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14107. Text is subject to correction.]IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY (Labour—Palmerston North): It is impossible when discussing in this Chamber anything to do with the defence force or veterans not to recognise the plaques around the building and the past conflicts. There are well-known names like Alamein Crete the River Plate Gallipoli is just up here to my right and over the far side there is MonteCassino. They are names that evoke strong emotions in the New Zealand psyche. They are places where in many ways the national identity has been forged. Increasingly in this century New Zealanders are turning to Anzac Day in particular and other commemorations of those events as days to look towards one another as a community to reflect on what it is to be New Zealanders and to reflect on our nation. Also look at other names like Korea Viet Nam and Afghanistan which perhaps sometimes for some people evoke a slightly different response—questioning the Government’s decisions to participate in those conflicts questioning what the reasoning was for being part of them and questioning the reason why there was an action occurring in those places in the first place. To those people who may or may not be listening this evening I say that what we are talking about are veterans.A veteran is a veteran. It does not matter what conflict they were involved in. A veteran is a person who at the request of their Government went to a foreign land and fought on our behalf in the belief that it was in our nation’s interests that they do so. Whether it be in the defence of our freedom whether it be in the defence of our democracy or whether it be to advance our principles of peace and freedom that is why every single veteran who has served our nation has served. That is why it is important that we pass this Veterans’ Support Bill and that we address the situation that has been allowed to develop—that the support system for veterans in New Zealand has become outdated and outmoded.Looking down to the far corner to my left we see Viet Nam Timor-Leste Afghanistan and recognition of the peacekeeping duties. That is an appropriate corner to glance at while we are discussing this because Viet Nam was the final conflict before the ACC laws and the ACC scheme were introduced in New Zealand. Following that we have the other conflicts that we have been involved in. In a way we have two sets of veterans who deserve to be treated in an equitable fashion but in order to do so we require two different schemes that recognise the two different situations that those veterans face. That is what is established here in this legislation. This legislation will do a number of things to improve the support systems for veterans but right at the heart of it is the establishment of two schemes. One is for veterans who served before ACC came into place and another is for veterans who are covered by the provisions of ACC.As the Minister of Veterans’ Affairs mentioned the current law is getting close to 60 years old. That is why as far back as 2006 the Labour Government and in particular Labour Ministers like Phil Goff and Rick Barker looked at what needed to change in order to bring the support mechanisms for veterans into the 21st century. It was after that initiation that the matter was referred to the Law Commission. It began its work under Sir Geoffrey Palmer in 2007 and an issues paper was developed for discussion and brought to the House in 2008. There was then a long period. That was the appropriate time that was needed to be taken in order to get the recommendations right. The Law Commission embarked on a lengthy period of consultation with various veteransgroups not least the RSA with the families of veterans with veterans themselves with veterans of conflicts from long ago with veterans of more recent conflicts and with the New Zealand Defence Force to talk about the future needs of veterans.After that lengthy period of consultation and an election and change of Government the Law Commission reported back on 1 June 2010. That was a 2-year period to get this right and that was appropriate. I hear what the Minister said—that we needed to make sure we got this right. I suppose that was his explanation for the length of time that it has taken. I guess that on this side of the House we say that a long period of time was taken to get the recommendations right. They were reported back to this House 3½ years ago and those 3½ years have frankly been too long for this legislation to be introduced to Parliament. For a period of time I was the veterans’ affairs spokesperson for the Labour Party. It was a role that I enjoyed because it gave me the opportunity to visitRSAs up and down the country. That is not a bad way to spend your time actually. In every single RSA that I visited the first topic for discussion was around what was happening with the Veterans’ Support Bill: “What is happening with the Law Commission report? When is that going to come before Parliament? When is it going to be progressed? When are we going to see the change that we have been promised for so very long?”.I know that veterans up and down the country will be very pleased that we have finally got to this stage this evening. I have got no doubt that many of them will come to the select committee to offer their views and opinions. They will as my colleague Phil Goff pointed out probably want to raise some questions about the difference between this draft legislation and the original recommendations in the Law Commission report. I imagine that there will be a robust and collaborative discussion at the select committee. I hope that the select committee has the opportunity to make amendments that will strengthen the legislation and that we will come back to the Chamber with a much better piece of legislation because it is not something that we need to play party politics over at all. It is something that I am sure will have broad support around the Chamber. It will be an opportunity for members of Parliament from all parties to work constructively towards putting in place the best possible legislation to underpin the best possible system to ensure that the needs of veterans both of conflicts long passed and of conflicts in which we may need to engage in the future are treated in an equitable fashion. We certainly support as I said earlier the establishment of two separate schemes to recognise the difference between veterans who are covered and those who are not covered by ACC. We support the other extensions of coverage and the other improvements to entitlements and provisions that are held within this legislation.With that I have some final words to say. Labour wholeheartedly supports the efforts—getting on to over a couple of decades now—of the various veterans’ groups to ensure that this legislative change has happened congratulates them on ensuring that we have got to this point and encourages everybody who has an interest in this legislation to participate in it and to come to the select committee to make sure that we get this right for our veterans and future defence force personnel.