Bidois DanDAN BIDOIS (National—Northcote): It's a pleasure to speak in the third and final reading of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill. I'd like to acknowledge all the previous speakers today in what has been a 16-year long process that brings us here today. It's been a robust debate as my colleague the Hon Alfred Ngaro has mentioned but this is the third and final reading of what is an important bill and a bill that I am absolutely happy to support on behalf of the National Party.So we do support this bill because we support the purposes of the bill in order to professionalise the social workers industry in order to make sure that we bring in the nearly 2000 unregistered workers who are practising in the industry into the formal and registered space. We do acknowledge that this is a very important role that is fulfilled in our society and we want to make sure that we are attracting and retaining the best talent to deal with some of our most at-risk families throughout New Zealand. So the aims of the bill are very clear from where we stand in terms of the unregistered not being able to practise as a social worker being able to clearly define what is a social worker and providing a host of other regulations around the standardisation and professionalisation through this bill.Now I just want to acknowledge of course that this is a bill that has been going on over several parliaments and I do want to acknowledge the former Minister for Social Development the Hon Anne Tolley for her work bringing this bill into the House. I think it is important that we recognise that there are cases where we can come together on both sides of the House and carry forward legislation that we think is worthwhile. I think that it is an acknowledgment that certainly to the Government side they're able to pick up and take on and carry forward the mantle of what is a good piece of legislation. I just think that we should reflect on that because in question time we know it can get pretty rowdy and there are times at which we are vocally opposed and shouting at each other's throats but the essence of what we are trying to do we both share in Parliament and we should acknowledge that as well.There has been robust debate that we did oppose Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 187. Of course I do hope the Minister acknowledges the reasons why we opposed that SOP because this for us was about process and we believed and still believe that the correct process in a functioning democracy like ours is for the in-depth discussion of bills to happen at the select committee stage and we would have appreciated and liked the ability to review that SOP in detail in that select committee process. To me it demonstrates a level I think of distrust in the parliamentary process in that we have waited 13 years for this bill to come to the third reading yet we couldn't wait an extra few weeks to have this SOP discussed in the select committee process. I know that this is the third reading and we are supporting it but I do want to again reflect on the importance of parliamentary process because that is the major reservation that we did have throughout the various stages of this bill—so again allowing the select committee to review the SOP in thorough detail and making sure that the Minister that brings these bills into the House and is shepherding these bills through manages their time so that the select committee can in fact review this in detail.But again this is a bill that we support the outcomes of which I think are very clear in terms of making sure we've got better social workers out there that they are valued and that they are recognised and their profession is recognised as a worthy profession but finally also that there are far better interactions between social workers and those most vulnerable that they're dealing with. I think we can all agree in this House today that the purpose of social workers is really to make these people's lives better and any legislation that helps to improve that relationship is legislation worthy of supporting in the House. The importance of social workers to us is very clear and I do want to acknowledge the nearly 6000 registered social workers out there in New Zealand but also those that are unregistered who we hope will be brought into the fold but also those that are on the periphery of social workers that do incredible work for our community.So this is the third and final reading and again we acknowledge that there's going to be a number of years before this legislation fully comes into effect but we definitely support the specifics in the bill around professionalising and making sure it's a mandatory registration.The scopes of practice which we have traversed many times throughout this bill process—we've talked about some of the troubles and difficulties with the scopes of practice but I think that as long as the Social Workers Registration Board develops that in consultation with the sector things will be better in that respect. So it is my pleasure to again speak on the third reading of this bill. I do want to acknowledge the Minister Carmel Sepuloni for her work in this area. I also want to acknowledge the members of the Social Workers Registration Board and in particular the outgoing chair John Walker. Again it has been a robust debate in this process and we hope that the Minister has taken some learnings on board about how to plan for adequate time at the select committee level because we are genuinely very very supportive of things of this nature. So I do again want to say a very special shout-out to the social workers out there in terms of the impact that they make and the specifics of the bill in terms of applying it to all social workers making sure that they are in fact competent in doing their job properly because we want them to be doing the best job that they can for the communities that they serve.So this is really about improving the minimum standards improving the transparency but also giving the Social Workers Registration Board a lot more say over the qualifications and the minimum standards that social workers must adhere to should they wish to practise and should they wish to call themselves a social worker. There's also in the bill a process by which employers can in fact go through if they feel that social workers are not adhering to a standard. We again support this general practice and including it in the bill as well. So it is absolutely my pleasure to talk in the third and final reading of this bill. Again we are supportive of the legislation. We are supportive of New Zealand social workers and we do hope that there have been some learnings in this House on both sides around how to bring legislation back from select committee. So I commend this bill to the House.