Pugh MaureenMAUREEN PUGH (National): Thank you very much Madam Assistant Speaker. For those enlightening words from Greg O'Connor over there—and it is still Thursday and it is 4.35 p.m. I am also very pleased to be standing in support of the Social Workers Registration Bill in its third reading this afternoon. It has been a long process but we are very pleased of course because this was a piece of legislation initiated by the Hon Anne Tolley and the National-led Government.Now the member on the Green side mentioned in her presentation earlier about the contribution of the Social Workers Registration Board and how they've been asking for the mandatory registration of social workers for many years. And there's no question about that. There's no argument about that but what this side of the House did take issue with was that during the select committee process when we completed that work there were issues raised by many submitters that were not able to be fully addressed by the Social Services and Community Committee and that was because of the report-back time that we were given. We did not have time to canvass a lot of those issues.Unfortunately because the bill sat with the Minister for a further eight months it was productive time that we could have actually applied to the exploration of some of those issues that were raised. But as it is we are here today at the completion of the bill including the Supplementary Order Paper that has been contributed by the Minister Carmel Sepuloni. So I do take this opportunity to congratulate the members of the Social Services and Community Committee a collegial group of people who have worked on many topics over the time. And I also today would like to acknowledge the newest member of the Social Services and Community Committee who made her maiden statement in this House yesterday and spoke for the first time just a few minutes ago. And I can tell already that she will be a very valued member of the National Party caucus. This bill will introduce the formal registration of social workers. And as we've heard many times today this will increase the professionalism of a very highly valued group of professionals in our workforce. It is a team of people that work with New Zealand's most vulnerable: they lift the fallen they restore the broken and they heal the hurting. A very big thank you to all social workers who help people pick up the pieces and restore their broken lives. We couldn't do it without you. Thank you so much.Now the conversation about social worker registration actually began back in the year 2000 and as a result we had the voluntary registration process introduced in legislation in 2013. As we heard from Greg O'Connor just before of the 18000 people who identified as social workers in the 2013 census only about one-third of those were actually registered. We now know that 1300 of those are non-practising now and about 600 of them are over the age of 65. So mandatory registration has been expected by the profession for many years. We did need to strengthen the regulatory framework for that sector and to increase the professionalism and competence of social workers. And of course that leads to the protection of the public and some of those people that our social workers work with.My special thanks to the submitters of which we had 170. And I also as many of my colleagues have said today acknowledge the work of the clerks and the advisers who do such a sterling job of presenting such a professional finished product and make sense of the conversations and the points that we raise during the select committee process. Now one issue that the select committee did deal with that was raised in the process was the redefining of jobs so that employers could possibly avoid registration. And by that I mean they could call people a youth worker or they could call them a support worker in order to avoid the title social worker" and therefore avoid the registration. But this bill makes it clear that no person can claim to be working as a social worker unless they are registered. And as I said that does protect the profession and the people.Now there is some lead-in time and the Minister mentioned in her presentation earlier that social workers—this will come into effect two years after the bill is enacted. But there is also a special provision for people who have worked in the field but do not have a formal qualification. It was of concern that we could lose some vital experience in that field from people who had worked in some cases for decades and although they didn't have a formal qualification the bill actually allows for them to be registered but they must do that within five years. So I think that was a very good contribution because one of the things that we do not want to do is to risk the experience that exists in the field already. One of the biggest hurdles of this bill that is going to face the sector is the cost. We know that 28 percent of the social workers work in the NGO field and this will impose extra cost on them in terms of their registration and professional development but I'm sure that that will be addressed in time. It is time to get on with the implementation of this bill. And as such I have great pleasure in commending it to the House."