Doocey Matt: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDoocey Matt: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1626. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MATT DOOCEY (National—Waimakariri):They say I look like him too. It is a privilege to take this call for the second reading of the Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) and a privilege to rise and speak to such a necessary bill. For the many listeners and viewers at home let me set the scene of this very important bill. This bill amends the Social Security Act 1964. This bill is about consistency this bill is about fairness and this bill is about equity. They are very similar to the values of this National Government: the values of consistency and better public services the values of fairness and honesty and the Government values of equity and equal opportunity.Can I acknowledge the hard work of this bill’s sponsor theMinister for Social Development the Hon Anne Tolley. She is committed to protecting the vulnerable. I must say last Tuesday I attended the launch of the state of the nation report by the Salvation Army. I went down and what a great report that was. It is the eighth annual report and it is called A Mountain All Can Climb. Yes it is a big mountain to climb but what a great start. Let me see: child poverty—lower; number of children at risk—lower; teenage pregnancies—falling; overall crime—down; imprisonment rate—down; criminal recidivism—down. Employment is up unemployment is down and incomes are rising faster than the cost of living. Could I remind the Opposition that in its last state of the nation report in 2008 it said for all its increased spending and expenditure it did not increase social progress by 1 percent.The Government is clearly working for New Zealand. The Government is focusing on investing in better public services for New Zealanders. So as I was saying the Hon Anne Tolley the Minister for Social Development is committed to protecting the vulnerable. She is committed to ensuring their voice is heard in policy and legislation and she is committed to delivering services that improve lives.So what is this bill about? Well it is about closing loopholes. At the moment we have some students and beneficiaries who are receiving differing levels of income support. So this National Government is amending this legislation because we take the responsibility of managing our country’s finances on behalf of taxpayers seriously. I was not on the Social Services Committee at the time but my understanding is that it did have two submissions. The Social Services Committee did make recommendations for this bill to be passed. Can I also pay tribute to our Social Services Committee chair Alfred Ngaro. My colleague’s collegial approach my colleague’s firm hand and my colleague’s empathy to the issues of focus in this select committee have contributed to a productive committee to date a select committee that is intent on making good law and a select committee that is making a difference.What is the background to this bill? Well very much it is in two parts and the first one is around students. The nub of it is we do have some students who are forgoing student allowance which entitles them to an accommodation supplement of higher value. We were all students once or most of us were and we know that it is entrepreneurial when you are a student. Young people like pushing boundaries but at the end of the day although this is legal or pretty legal or fairly legal it was not the intended outcome of the Social Security Act. I must say how proud I am to live in a country with a Social Security Act and social welfare provision. We all know about the welfare provision post-World War II and the Bretton Woods agreements and with the baby boomers we cannot sustain that level of social welfare but we can provide targeted social welfare support to the vulnerable.It reminds me that I had the opportunity to travel into Zimbabwe in 2003 and its economy had just collapsed. Pretty much you would go to a supermarket and the tellers were scooping money into rubbish bags. Their money was worth nothing. To go out for dinner you had to fill up your backpack full of money to go and buy a meal. And the people were desperate; they were really on edge. They did not have the social welfare provision we have in New Zealand and it just goes to show that for the well-being of people you need strong economic management and this is what the National Government is providing.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I am going to interrupt the member as I interrupted the previous speaker. The member did take about 3 minutes of introduction and then spoke on the bill for about 90 seconds. I am now going to advise him to get back on to the bill that is before the House.MATT DOOCEY: What is the aim of the bill? The aim of the bill is to exclude students who are eligible under the Student Allowances Regulations 1998 from receiving the accommodation supplement. The amendments make it clear that students are not eligible for the accommodation supplement if they can receive assistance under the Student Allowances Regulations 1998. What about the amendment for beneficiaries? What we do know is that some beneficiaries can receive accident compensation payments. Under the Social Security Act compensation payments are deducted dollar for dollar from their benefit and this is very much for ACC payments but does not include compensation paid for by accredited employers. That is very much the argument and the amendment of this legislation. It is closing a current loophole that results in deductions not being equally applied to compensation paid for by ACC or accredited employers which is not a very good incentive to work. I must say in today’s environment we need everyone to work and to get back to work. The Ministry of Social Development is currently deducting payments from both ACC and accredited employers and this bill validates the present and past practice. The total cost of this loophole is $700000 per annum and retrospectively applied is $3.261 million.In conclusion this bill is about consistency. It is about fairness. It is about equity. I acknowledge the hard work of the social development Minister Anne Tolley and the Social Services Committee chair Alfred Ngaro. This bill closes loopholes that allow some students and beneficiaries to receive differing levels of income. This bill will save millions of dollars as our National Government takes seriously its responsibility of managing the country’s finances on behalf of the taxpayer. I commend this bill to the House.