Whaitiri MekaHon MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Madam Speaker tēnā koe. Otirā e ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I'm indeed honoured as a daughter of a Korean vet to stand here and I acknowledge my namesake Melissa Lee across the hall as a proud daughter of a Vietnam vet in making a small contribution to the second reading of the Veterans' Support Amendment Bill.Can I commend the hard-working Minister of Defence and acknowledge—we feel the love in the Tai Rāwhiti of this Minister. I understand the Prime Minister launched a vessel in the navy just the other day which will find Tai Rāwhiti as its base but I want to acknowledge the Minister in his recent travels to Tai Rāwhiti with the launch of the Whitiki! Whiti! Whiti! E!: Māori in the First World War book launched on C Company that Madam Speaker you'll be very familiar with at C Company in Gisborne Tai Rāwhiti.So it is indeed an honour to stand and support this bill that is extending and making a small amendment to the Act that other speakers have addressed that acknowledges all our hard-working servicemen and women who have served obviously in the great battles but who just serve our country with such pride and dignity whenever they travel to overseas missions. This bill is making those support mechanisms available to them by making this small amendment.So I'm proud to stand in support of the bill and in acknowledgment of like I said our hard-working servicemen and women—for some that are no longer with us perhaps a tad too late but we've also got to look on the positive side in that not only were we extending it to make it very clear on who should be entitled to support but it also is wrapped around with this coalition Government's commitment to mental health. We've heard many tragedies of our hard-working servicemen and women that have returned back from overseas engagements and battles who suffer from the impacts of serving their nation. So this bill in tidying up this amendment which is section 9 which simply empowers the responsible Minister to declare deployments of New Zealand Defence Force personnel that meet certain specified criteria to be qualified and operational for the purpose of this Act.In addition I just wanted to acknowledge the $1.9 billion that the coalition Government has committed to mental health and that our servicemen and women throughout the country and overseas will also feel the love from this coalition Government the importance that we wrap around mental support for those that need it. So this bill should be seen as part of a bigger commitment of this coalition Government towards the mental health and wellbeing of all our citizens but in particular to this Veterans' Support Amendment Bill we are talking about our servicemen and women that serve our country proudly.It is such a small bill but it's an important bill. We've talked about the amendments to section 9—others have canvassed this. It is making it a lot clearer but the message from me is to acknowledge our servicemen and women those that are currently with us and also to send a clear message as a preferred career to our rangatahi. Again I want to acknowledge the Minister in his work around Limited Service Volunteers but for those that may be thinking of a career in our military in our defence force—that they know that their rights and their support from this Government through this bill and through this amendment is a real commitment to them. I commend this bill to the House.