Parmar ParmjeetDr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you very much Madam Chair. I'm taking a very short call because this is a very interesting committee of the whole House because this bill is being supported by us. It was really interesting to see that the Minister for ACC actually took that call only to attack us the Opposition and to blame us for all the submissions that came through during the select committee process. But the Minister in charge realised that ACC is a department that touches many lives and people have different kinds of experiences with ACC. Whenever we have any legislation to do with ACC or any such department people come forward and they want to share those experiences. The Minister should actually be really grateful to those submitters for raising those issues. We fully understand that those issues were not in the scope of this bill and could not be considered during this process that we are going through to address this bill but we were given hope during the select committee process by the Minister's officials that nothing will go to waste and that is the assurance we sought during the select committee process. So we are really hopeful that the Minister will take those submissions seriously instead of just using this for politics to attack us. The member Clare Curran who just spoke before me—the Hon Tim Macindoe interjected several times when she said that yep they are making some big changes in ACC asking what those changes are. She could not give that answer. So maybe the Minister is more capable of providing that answer to us. It's really disappointing when we are dealing with such a simple bill and here we actually are seeing that the Minister is actually blaming submitters and blaming the Opposition for the views that came through during the select committee process. So the work on this bill actually started under the previous National Government and that's why we are fully in agreement on what's happening in this bill. We are fully an agreement with the changes that came through during the select committee process. One change is to the commencement date. That has changed to 1 July 2019 and we fully support that because that has to align with the other processes in the select committee process. Other than what the Minister said when he was attacking us and attacking submitters I want to add my supportive voice to all the changes that this bill is to make because it's going to make a positive difference in many many people's lives. So yes I can understand that it's a small number of people but those people will be hugely thankful for these changes because they have been waiting for this legislation to go through a.s.a.p. It's really good to see that this legislation has come to this stage—that is the committee of the whole House—because that means it is going to be passed very soon but we understand that the commencement is going to be from 1 July 2019 as was amended in the select committee process. So clause 4 in Part 1 is I would say a very important clause where we are extending the entitlements to ACC for people that accompany an individual when that individual is overseas on duty—that is when the remuneration for that is treated as income derived in New Zealand for New Zealand income tax purposes. It's really unfair for that individual to go by themselves and not take their family just because their family or anybody who is dependent on that individual will not have the entitlement if they go overseas with that individual. So it's important that we extend this entitlement to ACC to individuals that would normally accompany the person that is on duty overseas. So this is during that time of duty or up to six months after the completion of that employment. So it's an important change. Then in clause 9 in Part 1 the changes that we make there result into some consequential changes in other Acts. This is merely to remove references to the interaction between weekly compensation and superannuation and that change is going to be in the New Zealand Superannuation Retirement Income Act 2001. Then the second change is merely to align the weekly compensation provisions and that change is in Veterans' Support Act 2014. So overall we are very supportive of this bill going through but as I said we are quite disappointed to see that the Minister actually doesn't look like he is serious now about taking the feedback that came through during the select committee process into consideration when any other changes to ACC are made. We would really urge the Minister to take those submissions and that feedback seriously and make it a part of any other changes that would be made to any ACC legislation. So it's a bill which started under the National Government. We are very supportive of this whole bill going through the committee of the whole House. Thank you.