Bennett GlenGLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora Mr Speaker. I rise also to take a call in support of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Fair Residency) Amendment Bill. This afternoon I want to continue the conversation that many of my colleagues across the House have talked about. And I want to talk about very much the process this afternoon and have some dialogue around that. Then I want to address some of the history and how have come to this place in the history of superannuation and in terms of the veterans pension as well. Then I just want to talk about us as a nation doing the right thing doing the right thing by our people.I want to thank Andrew Bayly for taking this piece of legislation through the House taking it from Mark Patterson from New Zealand First who as one of our speakers said earlier was lucky; was lucky to have this drawn out of the ballot in the 52nd parliament.I guess today—well I know today that I also feel lucky. I feel lucky that I live in a lucky country. I feel lucky that I was born into a lucky country and whatever your views or beliefs are somehow I ended up being born in New Zealand. This place looks after people and does its best—and we always have more to do I know. But about 20 years ago I was visiting Eastern Europe and I was over there for some work. I discovered as a younger person who hadn't travelled just the challenges that other parts of the world face. And when we look at this piece of legislation and we look around superannuation and retirement here in New Zealand we realise and I realise that in other parts of the world like where I was in Eastern Europe there were elderly people selling cigarettes and selling sunflower seeds on the side of the road. I asked one of my interpreters around this and they said Well we don't have a pension like you do in New Zealand." Once they stop work if they even worked or whatever was going on in their lives they have to find ways and means to live and survive these things. And so yeah it was a really humbling experience actually to experience what life is like for others how hard it is and that's why I feel lucky. I feel blessed to be in a place like this where we can do the right thing by our people.Now I want to thank the Finance and Expenditure Committee and on my right here Dr Duncan Webb who chaired that committee mightily I understand in terms of passing this and working with officials working with the Ministry of Social Development to ensure that across Parliament across this House conversations were had. Some 362 submissions were taken and read and heard and the bill was modified was made fit for purpose. And I go back to Andrew Bayly earlier when he opened the debate this afternoon and said that this bill needed a decent amount of panel beating. It seems like a decent amount of panel beating was done so well done to all those who were involved. Also I want to reflect on a friend of mine who's currently in hospital who is a superannuitant and the challenges he's faced—and again feel lucky that we here can care for our people as he was able to move into a rest home and be supported through his superannuation.But in terms of reflecting on New Zealand superannuation and a number of colleagues this afternoon have spoken around the history I won't repeat what's been said already but I will also add to what has been talked about. So as we already know we talked about 1898. It was a good year I'm sure. And as my colleague Dr Emily Henderson talked about you had to be of good moral character. But New Zealand was the only country bar Germany that had introduced some kind of State pension. And we were the first that used the funds from general taxes to pay this. It was groundbreaking legislation and of course it wasn't a lot back then. Looking here it was around £18 per year which is the equivalent of around $3400 and I know probably house prices were slightly different and probably other things were different back then but hey.But also as Dr Emily Henderson spoke about there was some discrimination involved. For example you had to present a birth certificate to prove that you were 65-plus. And of course for many of our Māori population they had never registered at birth had any sort of registration. So it was discriminatory legislation; I can never say that properly. And so I'm glad that we've moved on and we've changed. Then I was thinking about—because it also obviously brings in the veterans pension and support of them. Back in 1866 legislation was first passed around that. In a move forward during the First World War there was an Act passed and then it kind of was collaborated and brought together in 1954 with the War Pensions Act.Now we support this legislation for many reasons. But I think as other colleagues have said it's reasonable. It's safeguarding the future of our superannuation. It's improving fairness between longer- and short-term New Zealand residents. This bill would raise the minimum residency qualification for New Zealand superannuation from 10 to 20 years after 20 years of age. Also I want to reflect on the members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee as they proposed changes and they worked again with officials and worked in the select committee process. So it was very much around that phasing in of the increased risk residence requirements by birth date. But also I was really appreciative of the fact that our Realm countries—the Cook Islands Niue Tokelau—were also able to be part of this residency requirement.And also again as I said at the start around us doing the right thing was this retaining the current 10-year residence requirement for our refugees protecting people who have only become residents at the age of 55 or older. We don't want stringent regulations and requirements to apply to our older refugees. Many didn't have a choice to come to this nation many are from nations that are far more challenging far more oppressive. They have no control necessarily. They had no control over arriving in New Zealand because they were part of the refugee quota programme and they can't just simply choose to return to their home country to receive an equivalent-type benefit. So I'm glad that we were able to do the right thing by our refugee community to support them in terms of retaining that 10-year residence requirement for our refugee population.So I'm glad to be here this afternoon supporting this member's bill. I feel lucky to be in this nation where we look after our people where we care for our populations where we do the right thing. I also want to do a slight segue if I may in support of this legislation. I mentioned my friend Jim who's in a rest home time in New Plymouth—obviously all superannuitants obviously all in the later stages of life being cared for well by a small family-owned rest home called Coronation Lodge Rest Home. I'm so grateful because they take good care of Jim and the rest of the whānau in there and they actually won the 2021 best aged-care small facility award for the North Island just recently. I think that says a lot for our care of our elderly for our care of those who are superannuitants. For me superannuation is actually 19 years away and yeah it makes me nervous but I'm OK with that because we're doing the right thing. My parents actually both 79 have been obviously on the pension for three or four years—I'm not sure of the numbers off the top of my head—still working full-time and able to obviously do right by this nation.I support this piece of legislation. I'm glad that our select committee was able to do some heavy lifting and some work to ensure that this bill is fit for purpose and will serve the future of superannuation in New Zealand."