Moroney Sue: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMoroney Sue: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 04 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:545. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]SUE MORONEY (Labour):It is my pleasure to rise to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on the Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill which we will be supporting at first reading and to the select committee. Before I address the content of this bill I would like to take the opportunity to dedicate my first reading speech to some recently departed leaders of high standing from the Hamilton community in both the Cook Islands and the Niuean communities. George Ford and Terry Chapman—both taonga and leaders in the Hamilton community for their respective Cook Islands and Niuean communities—actually interestingly died within a few days of each other about a year ago. It was a time of great loss and great grief for not only their communities in Hamilton but for the broader community in Hamilton because of the leadership roles that those two men had displayed in terms of the integration of their communities with the broader Hamilton community and in ensuring that people who were coming to Hamilton from the Cook Islands and Niue had a community to settle into and were well looked after. That benefited the rest of the community.I raise this because it is interesting that when you know people in your community sometimes you do not always know what a contribution they have made. It was not until I attended Terry Chapman’s funeral that I learnt and understood the amazing contribution he had made to Niue. He had been the primary public servant involved in drafting the Niuean constitution. He had come to live and work in New Zealand after making that incredible commitment to and having that impact on his own country. It was not until I was at his funeral and saw that the Premier of Niue had travelled to Hamilton to farewell Terry Chapman that I truly understood what this man’s contribution had been. Of course that contribution because of the connection between Niue and New Zealand as the Minister has just said is considerable for our own community because of the way in which that constitution was brought about. I do want to dedicate my first reading speech to those two very fine gentlemen who have made such a contribution to their own nations but also to the nation-building in New Zealand and to our Hamilton community in particular.This bill is supported by the Labour Party because it actually helps people. As people know about the Labour Party our view is that people matter most. This bill gives effect to the portability of the New Zealand superannuation and the veterans pension to people who may wish to retire in the Cook Islands Niue or Tokelau and it seems like a very correct and fitting thing to do. What a nice place to retire in—any of those places. Would that not be fabulous? If in our older age we were perhaps fit enough and we did not feel that we needed to be near a tertiary hospital or major health care services any of those places would be a fabulous place to retire in and this bill allows people to have that option. So it allows that portability. The aim of it is to allow eligible people who live in the Cook Islands Niue or Tokelau to be able to apply from any of those countries for New Zealand superannuation or a veterans pension and to be paid those benefits in any of those countries or in other specified Pacific countries.This policy from the Government was announced on 9 August 2013 by the Hon Murray McCully and it has taken some time to get to a first reading but I am pleased that it has made it on to the Order Paper at this point in time. So under the current rules I think as the Minister outlined people wishing to retire to the Cook Islands Niue or Tokelau have to be resident and president—that is present in New Zealand at age 65.Poto Williams: President would be fine.SUE MORONEY: Well they could be the president as well. But no they are not required to be the president; they are only required to be present so it is not so cumbersome. As we know these are our Pacific neighbours. The people who are most likely to be using this probably are not people like me who think it would be a wonderful dream to retire in such a location. It is very likely to be people who are returning home—people who have come to our country come to New Zealand to contribute to our society to further their own education perhaps or to further the opportunities afforded to their own families. They have worked. They have made a huge commitment like the sort of contribution I outlined just before from the two gentlemen I spoke of Terry Chapman and George Ford. They brought a huge commitment and skills to our country. Then after having earned money here and earned the right to be paid New Zealand superannuation they have earned the right to be able to retire in their homeland. I think that it is right and proper that we afford them the ability to do so.Residents of those countries or that territory—as the Minister outlined before Tokelau is regarded as a territory—would still need to qualify for New Zealand superannuation in the first instance. So they must have been resident and present in New Zealand for more than 10 years since the age of 20 including 5 years since the age of 50 for this new provision to apply to them. This means that people who are entitled to New Zealand superannuation regardless of whether they are of Cook Islands Niuean or Tokelauan ethnicity will be able to depart New Zealand to live in one of these three countries after the age of 55 and apply without returning to New Zealand for their superannuation once they turn 65.One thing that I do notice—and I suppose it is more noticeable now because we have this tool that we use called Facebook where we can see what people are up to—is that people from the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau in the Hamilton area are actually going back and rediscovering their roots. Some of these families—I guess it is the children of the people who first travelled here—are going back and reconnecting with their parents’ and sometimes their grandparents’ villages and discovering those roots for the first time. I guess I have had a little bit of experience in this myself but what I notice when people go back and discover their roots is how much confidence it gives them in who they are and where they have come from. You absolutely notice that when people return they have got that new-found sense of confidence.I had a little bit of an experience like that myself. When I did my overseas experience—I think I was at the tender age of 18 or 19 at the time—I went to this foreign land called Ireland. It was a place I had never been to before and a place I did not know a lot about but I have Irish ancestry on both sides of my family. That probably explains a little bit to my colleagues about me. I have Irish ancestry on both sides so there is no escaping it. What I really was not prepared for was landing in this foreign land I had never been to before and feeling completely and utterly at home from day one. I imagine that that is something of the experience that people who are going back and discovering their roots in these three localities have as well—that somehow through DNA I think it actually is transmitted that this is home; this is where you belong. So the calling will be strong for people from those three locations to retire there. This bill allows them to do that without losing the financial support that they have earned and gained from their time in New Zealand. It is a bill that is worthy of our support. I am very proud to have stood and supported this bill on behalf of the Labour Party and particularly in memory of those two fine men—George Ford and Terry Chapman. Thank you.