Sio Hon Aupito WilliamHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Pacific Peoples): Madam Deputy Speaker the Hon Carmel Sepuloni has had to table 500 Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs)—Hon Carmel Sepuloni: 500 pages.Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: Five hundred pages. Five hundred pages—sorry—of Supplementary Order Paper to amend and remove the punitive measures that that particular Government now in Opposition had introduced when this bill was supposed to be policy-neutral. So the question is: what is being policy-neutral?I would draw your attention to the original Social Security Act of 1938 where the overarching purpose of that is set out in the preamble of the legislation and it reads: An Act to provide for the Payment of Superannuation Benefits and of other Benefits designed to safeguard the People of New Zealand from Disabilities arising from Age Sickness Widowhood Orphanhood Unemployment or other Exceptional [Circumstances]; … and further to provide … other Benefits as may be necessary to maintain and promote the Health and General [Well-being] of the Community." That's the policy setting that should have remained and should remain right throughout this process but the Opposition changed it and that's what we're resetting tonight. Furthermore the underlying principle of the Act said that every citizen had a right to a reasonable standard of living and that it was a community responsibility to ensure that its members were safeguarded against the economic ills from which they could not protect themselves. That's what needs to remain constant throughout the rewrite that we're doing on this legislation but that Opposition when they were in Government changed all that. They introduced punitive measures which weren't about helping and supporting those in need; they were about punishing them. They were about forcing them into things that they had no control over.This new Government will now continue this work because it is significant work and because when we were in Opposition we objected to that previous form. This new Government's vision is for a welfare system that ensures people have an adequate income and standard of living are treated with and can live in dignity and are able to participate meaningfully in their communities. Progressing the rewrite bill now will provide a solid legislative platform to undertake the overhaul of the welfare system and will assist users of the social security system. I want to acknowledge the Hon Carmel Sepuloni a new Minister with a huge portfolio. She's come in and seen the mess that that previous Government has left so she's gotten to work and this is the result. It will pass—it will pass—because if I had a bucket that bucket would be filled with the crocodile tears that I've heard time and time again from that Opposition.You see the underlying principle of the 1938 Act was also carried through in the 1964 Act and this is what one of the—during the neutral rewrite of the 1938 Act in the Minister of Social Security's first reading speech that Minister said "The present Act which is nearly 26 years old has been amended approximately 30 times and is extremely difficult to follow both by the general public and by those whose responsibility it is to administer the Act. For that reason alone the Government thinks a consolidation is well overdue." In 1964 the Social Security Act had 135 sections; it's now since grown to over 500 sections with only four remaining unchanged.Why do we need to rewrite the Act? The 1964 Act is long overdue for a rewrite and the Social Security Act 1964 is one of the most important pieces of New Zealand legislation. It sets out the financial support available to people who aren't able to fully support themselves and their families and the rewrite bill will make social security legislation easier for people to navigate use and understand. But I think more importantly it's about delivering the help and support to those who are less fortunate than many of us and to those whose situation is because of things that are out of their control.I draw your attention to the Social Services Committee when they received the bill in the first instance and the select committee made a useful contribution in identifying areas where the bill could be further tidied up. The committee responded to a submission by practice nurses who want to make life easier for the patients who consult them. The changes prompted by that submission will save patients from having to wait for a further appointment with a doctor before they can have the documentation they need for their benefit assistance.I don't know what it is that that other side in the Opposition keep harping on about as if their rewrite in the initial stages was truly neutral. It wasn't neutral. If it was neutral we wouldn't be having this debate at all. The fact that you've got 500 pages introduced by the Minister is evidence that there is a lot of work to be able to bring the legislation back to what it was originally set up to do and that is to be able to safeguard the people of New Zealand from disabilities arising from age sickness widowhood orphanhood and unemployment and further to provide other benefits as may be necessary to maintain and promote.In no other time has it ever been more important than now. Because of the circumstances that many in this country of ours face after nine years of neglect it is now more critical that the rewrite takes place and that we remove what the previous Government had done by setting the course into something that the framers of the 1938 Act had never envisioned. I don't know how it is that members on that side could get up in this House and talk about what they had done by grounding our safety net which is what I call our social welfare system into an instrument where they can hold up punitive measures to punish people.How do you encourage somebody that is unable to find a job? [Interruption] Sorry Madam Deputy Speaker. How does one encourage somebody that is in a desperate situation—a solo parent young children to feed—when that previous Government would tell those people "If you don't find a job we will cut your benefit. If you don't get an interview we will deem it that you are not genuine about looking for a job."? That's the kind of goings-on under the previous Government.Simon O'Connor: What a load of rubbish.Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: That member might say it's a load of crap but it isn't. That member that member most of all—how sad it is that that member who should know better would say something like that in this House? I'm ashamed that he's a member of this House because a lot of people think that he would be defending the needy the poor the orphaned the disabled and those who are widowed but he doesn't—he doesn't. He pretends he does but he doesn't. Certainly that kind of commentary should reveal to his constituency that he's all talk but he can't deliver and for nine long years he associated himself with a Government that didn't have a heart that didn't show any kindness whatsoever to the very people that they now pretend to be defending.As I said if I had a bucket it would be filled with the kind of crocodile tears that I've heard over and over again from the members of that side. Shame on them. Shame on them if they're now going to be supporting this. They disguise their rhetoric by saying it was a neutral rewrite but we now know better: 500 pages—500 pages to redo and rewrite the damage that they were trying to cause to this country. Shame on them.Amendments recommended by the Social Services Committee by majority agreed to.Bill read a second time."