Davidson MaramaMARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Kia orana Madam Assistant Speaker. I am very proud to stand and support the Social Assistance (Residency Qualification) Legislation Bill on behalf of the Green Party. I want to congratulate Minister Sepuloni for bringing this bill to the House—a really important way that we can show better support better connection and better responsibility for our Pacific cousins our tuākana as tangata whenua will often refer to our Pacific Island relations and whanaunga.I did want to start also as many have done because the tangata whenua connection with our Pacific Island whanaunga is a particular one and is a unique one and so I too from the tangata whenua perspective would like to acknowledge the Cook Island Prime Minister the Hon Henry Puna the high commissioner representatives and staff from the Cook Island country in relation to the proud migration and waka journey travels and stories and settlements that Pacific people and tangata whenua to Aotearoa share collectively in terms of our whole collective migration and visiting and exchanging and learning throughout the different Pacific countries as we came down through the Pacific and also culminating in our settlement here as tangata whenua in Aotearoa.We have a unique historical whanaungatanga a unique historical relationship to our tuākana to our Pacific cousins. It is not just historical. We of course also share the similar colonial and imperial impacts on our homelands and what that has done for our people our language our land our culture and our relationships to each other as well. I want to acknowledge for example the commonalities in the language revival work that both tangata whenua are consistently working on and reviving and also the language revival work that is happening here in Aotearoa for our Pacific communities. Of course I acknowledge that the Cook Island Niue and Tokelau countries are our citizen brothers and sisters our citizen siblings and it's really wonderful to have our Cook Island Niue and Tokelau MPs in this House with us as well. We're all very proud of that in this House.So this bill is going to make it easier for people from the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau to be eligible for our New Zealand superannuation and/or our veterans pensions—our pension payments. As Minister Sepuloni has already stated the Governments of the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau were concerned—and I picked this up keenly—about the way that the current eligibility criteria for New Zealand pensions was preventing or deterring people from returning home and contributing to their countries at an earlier age. At this point I just want to pick up on some of the media reports—which I am grateful for—which shared some of the stories where for example many people trying to meet the current standards moved to New Zealand from those three nations to meet those criteria for the New Zealand superannuation payments by spending at least 10 consecutive years in New Zealand after the age of 20 and then they would move back to the Cook Islands for example where perhaps anxiety had set in in their fifties and they realised that they wanted to return to their ancestral lands. But they then had to move back to New Zealand again to be able to meet those stringent requirements of the five years after 50 rule—spending at least five years here after the age of 50.So having to move back and forth or having to stay put and not go home at all to be able to meet that five years after 50 rule—we're getting rid of that. Or actually we're not getting rid of it; we are making sure that the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau are included in the net for the residency eligibility and this makes me happy. This makes me happy because as tangata whenua—and my tungāne and colleague the Hon Peeni Henare picked up on it today as well where he talked about the similar sorts of stories we share of the exodus of tangata whenua from our tupuna lands our ancestor lands to the cities and what that has meant today. Something I've taken for granted is so many of our young people—well not just young people. Many of our people—more and more of our people—don't even know what marae they are from what iwi they're from or what hapū they're from. By the way that doesn't mean anything to us. Even if you don't know your marae you still belong to it and we'll still claim you even if you don't know you're from it. So it's not just the economic and social disconnection; it's a spiritual and cultural disconnection that hopefully this bill is going to go some way to try to assist in that reconnection work. So I am pretty stoked to be able to stand up and support the bill from that common experience of what it means. Yes we're very lucky to be able to call several places our home. Even here in Aotearoa—I live by the way in Manurewa in Manukau. Manukau City is I think the largest Pacific city in the Pacific. I live there and that is my home and has been for two decades but my ancestor homes are also in the Far North and on the East Coast. They are all equally my home but it is also important to me that I am able to feel connected to my ancestral homes as well. So I'm glad that I'm able to stand here and support this bill because often we're torn between those many homes and torn between choosing where we want to be and where we are able to be. So just to go into a little bit of the detail of this bill for the Green Party representation currently to be eligible for New Zealand pension payments one has to have been present in New Zealand for 10 years since the age of 20 and then the five years which must be from the age of 50—that's that five years after 50 rule that I was referring to previously—and—Matt Doocey: Life begins at 50. MARAMA DAVIDSON: Sorry sorry Mr Doocey? Five years after 50? I think that's a simple way for me to be able to understand what's going on here. The reason why this is for Niue the Cook Islands and Tokelau is because New Zealand has constitutional responsibility for our citizen siblings and cousins in those countries and we're wanting to reflect that relationship. So I did want to pick up—oh I've sort of talked about it a little bit more but the specific concern that drove those countries' Governments to advocate and lead the call for this amendment was also around the problems of depopulation. You know we're still facing that here so we know a bit about that and the social economic and cultural consequences and the instability also of not being able to settle for as long as you would like in one place and having to go back and forth or not being able to return when you would like to because of these stringent rules. I've got a little bit of time and I did just want to acknowledge that in 2015 some attempt was made to improve the portability of pension payments for people of Cook Island Niue and Tokelau descent but basically that didn't quite work and it didn't have the take-up that we would have hoped for. I do acknowledge Mr Ron Mark took us through the politics of that—I acknowledge that—and so here we are today allowing for that change which was apparently the change that New Zealand First proudly pushed for. Here we are today allowing for that five years after 50 rule to include the residents of the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau to contribute to the residency and eligibility. So I just wanted to finish by again acknowledging the calls and the leadership from the Governments of the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau who saw fit to work with us and who will continue to work with us and who saw fit to call for this. I think we should keep reviewing and keep checking—and I know our Minister will—to see what sorts of improvements or what sorts of teething problems there are. I know that we will keep checking on that so that it's set up to do what it's supposed to do. I am just very proud here as tangata whenua and an MP to support this bill. Meitaki.