Goudie Sandra: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
Goudie Sandra: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:639;Page:9199] 
SANDRA GOUDIE (National—Coromandel) 
: 
 I rise to speak to the Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill. In doing so I acknowledge that National is supporting this bill in spite of the rhetoric from the member who has just spoken and from the Minister in charge of this bill. This bill has been dubbed the “SuperGold Card Discount Bill” and we do have to ask ourselves why. All the rhetoric is about the SuperGold discount card yet the bill does not mention the SuperGold card once. 
National members have no problem with what has been achieved through this SuperGold card—well we think something will be achieved but nobody actually knows what will accrue to this card. We would be delighted if some real benefits could come out of this for our senior citizens and we acknowledge the great work that Grey Power has done. It is to be congratulated on all its efforts with regard to the SuperGold card. We recognise the importance of the advocacy role of Grey Power and we are pleased to support the recognition of that and its contribution and the contribution our senior citizens have made and continue to make to our society. We cannot overstate that in any way. 
But I do take issue with the Rt Hon Winston Peters and the Minister Rick Barker over the wording of the bill. At no time did they make much reference to the bill. It was all about the SuperGold discount card. Yet the bill has only two parts to it and not once in the bill are the words “SuperGold discount card” mentioned. 
The purpose of Part 1 is to provide regulation-making powers. What is that for? The regulation-making powers are to provide for photographs and to provide for microchipping. But the regulations will actually constrain what is going to happen around those two provisions. Not once is the word “optional” mentioned. The explanatory note of the bill goes on about the photograph being optional. Well given that that is written in the explanatory note I guess the Government can be held to account—if it is still there at any future date—to ensure that that provision is indeed optional. But there is absolutely nothing that says “optional” in this bill—we only have to read the wording. 
That was something that was made quite clear by the New Zealand Law Society. In fact the Rt Hon Winston Peters actually rubbished the New Zealand Law Society’s submission which pointed out that the wording is quite specific. Paragraph (ba) inserted by clause 5(1) states: “providing for cardholders’ photographs to be affixed to or imaged into a category of entitlement cards and prescribing procedures requirements and other matters in relation to those photographs:”. Clause 5(2) also amends section 132A(2) by inserting the words “or a microchip embedded in them.’ ” So regulations allow for those two activities to take place with regard to entitlement cards not with regard to the SuperGold card. The bill does not mention the SuperGold discount card. The bill talks about entitlement cards—any entitlement card. That means any card issued by this Government that gives people an entitlement to something. The SuperGold card itself is not actually mentioned at all. I just cannot understand why there is so much rhetoric around the SuperGold card when the bill is actually quite clear quite simple and quite specific around a number of issues. 
However the one thing that is needed with regard to the SuperGold card is for the Government to be able to access the information in order to provide that SuperGold card to the 540000 senior citizens who are entitled to it who I am sure would include the Rt Hon Winston Peters. 
Barbara Stewart 
: Not yet. 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: Oh not yet! A dead giveaway! 
The Government has to legislatively provide for itself to be able to access the information about the 540000-odd senior citizens who want to have access to the SuperGold card. But the bill is quite clear that it allows the Government just to access the information from the Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages and it amends the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 to that effect. 
Clause 8(1) amends schedule 1A of that Act by omitting the words “Department of Work and Income” and substituting “Ministry of Social Development”. That allows the ministry to have access to that information. But if we look at clause 8(2) we see that it states: “Paragraph (b) of the item relating to the Department of Work and Income in Schedule 1A is amended by adding ‘or a card the availability of which is based principally on the age and residence of a person or of his or her spouse or civil union partner or former spouse or civil union partner.” So basically the bill is about accessing information from the Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages on any entitlement card relating to those specific matters. It does not state: “accessing information only on information for the purposes of the SuperGold card”. It is for any entitlement card based on those particular issues in the bill that I have outlined. It is important that when we are talking about matters to do with our senior citizens we do not mislead them in any way and that we give them the facts of the matter. 
When it comes to the bill those are the facts of the matter. There are only two parts to the bill. They are quite specific and quite clear and relate only in a generalist way to the SuperGold card by the mere fact that the bill is about entitlement cards per se. We do not know anything very much at all about the SuperGold card other than the rhetoric that has been espoused in this Chamber. We cannot say for certain what the discounts are. We cannot say for certain who might miss out and who might be those persons who are fully entitled to the SuperGold card. 
Darren Hughes 
: What would the member like to see on the card? 
SANDRA GOUDIE 
: We have no idea what the intention is for the SuperGold card. All we know is that we have a bill in front of us right now and there has been very little from the two Government members who have spoken thus far about the actual content of the bill. It has largely been rhetoric about the SuperGold card itself. We are in a position of waiting to see when that SuperGold card is revealed in the time to come whether the trumpeting has been warranted. We hope that our senior citizens will not be disappointed. 
We do not know what will be on that SuperGold card but we do know that in order to issue the SuperGold card access to information from the Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages is needed. This is fascinating really because here we have a Government wanting to access that information while at the same time closing down the public’s access to the same information. I find that ironic in the extreme. It is to be hoped that in the future that will not occur. 
In essence the bill is quite simple. It is all about entitlement cards per se—any entitlement card—and the regulation-making powers in regard to those entitlement cards. National supports the sorts of benefits that may possibly accrue to our senior citizens. We absolutely agree that senior citizens have done their time and deserve some recognition for their huge contribution to our society. We also would like to support the acknowledgment of that. We have consistently done so which is why we have also consistently supported the passing of this bill.