Bayly Andrew; Dean JacquiNEW ZEALAND SUPERANNUATION AND RETIREMENT INCOME (FAIR RESIDENCY) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. I move That the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Fair Residency) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. It's a great opportunity to be standing up here to discuss this bill. It's not often that an Opposition member is able to witness the passing of their bill through the House. And of course to do so actually relies on the good will of the Government. And so I just want to say at this stage that we are here through the support of Labour and I just want to acknowledge the other parties who are supporting this bill: certainly I think ACT are and I think the New Zealand Māori Party is as well. I'm lucky actually. This is the second time I've been able to put through a member's bill when I've been in Opposition. The last time was the Arbitration Amendment Act that we passed back in May 2019. So it is with much pleasure to be standing here as I've said before.I think it's also worth acknowledging that the genesis of this bill was from Mark Patterson a member of Parliament for New Zealand First in the 52nd Parliament. I spoke to Mark earlier to acknowledge that we were going to be debating this bill today. Mark came to me after he lost office at the last election and asked that I take over this bill in his name. It's probably fair to say that the bill in the state that it was presented and went through in the first reading would not have survived without a lot of panel beating and so I gratefully acknowledge the Finance and Expenditure Committee for its role in doing so. And I also just want to acknowledge Anita Williams who normally does turn up here. No doubt she's listening but she was also someone who helped in the research of this bill and the fundamentals behind it.So we're here today after going through all the process and I think it's useful maybe just to talk about the context of this because what we're talking about is making superannuation entitlements tighter for New Zealand residents particularly if they've lived overseas. And I think the overarching issue is I think everyone is aware that superannuation is the largest single cost that the Government has to incur and it of course is growing exponentially through demographic changes. At the moment roughly 15 percent of the population is aged 65 and over. By 2040 it gets to 20 percent and by 2060 it's 25 percent. So a quarter of our population by 2060 will be receiving superannuation. So that together with the inflationary pressures that come on the actual payment that's adjusted for the Consumers Price Index means that this is just a cost that's coming down on the country.I think finding pragmatic ways to deal with that is vitally important. Of course this bill tightens the requirements. It won't have a huge financial implication but it is one step towards making it more sustainable. And I think it's worthwhile in the context of this bill just noting that we will be increasing—assuming that we pass it this afternoon—the age of the residency entitlement from 10 to 20 years over a staggered period to give people time to transition through that. And by increasing it to 20 years what we are doing is basically bringing New Zealand into line with the OECD. Australia's the only other country that has a 10-year test but of course they have a means test around that 10-year test. But the average across the OECD in terms of entitlement is actually closer to 26 years. So even by increasing it to 20 years we're still below the OECD average. Of course most countries around the world are moving to a higher age bracket of 67 rather than 65 which reflects the demographic change and life expectancy of people. And so that's obviously going to be a wider debate going forward but of course this bill is just very focused on that one issue around the length of time that you need to be a resident.So maybe it's just worthwhile recapping what's in the bill. The bill proposed that for every two complete years that a resident stays in New Zealand and is born after 1 July 1959 they would need to complete one additional year of residence in New Zealand. So it's a two-year requirement and for every two years you have to complete an additional year of residence for you to be entitled to your superannuation. So anyone born after 1 July 1977 would need to complete 20 years of residency. No doubt there's some younger members in the House who are calculating it but it's a long way away.So one of the Supplementary Order Papers (SOPs) that were introduced in discussion between the Minister and myself during the committee of the whole House stage of the bill was to delay the implementation date of when these provisions come into play. So it was agreed that we should delay the implementation until 1 July 2023. Part of that followed a discussion I had with the Retirement Commissioner who said in her view that we should give a greater period of transition and I accepted that argument—I thought it was a good argument and in discussion with the Government the SOP was introduced to the House during the committee of the whole House stage. I think that means that we've now struck a nice balance. We've got this transition where people right now who are very close to retirement won't be affected by the change but those who are going to be affected by the change can now increasingly plan for their retirement and have those discussions with their employer if that's the case and make arrangements accordingly. The other thing that the Finance and Expenditure Committee was very focused on was the position of refugees. We obviously take in refugees—we take in quite a number and of course we've expanded the facilities in Māngere. But we were very concerned that if we were giving people refugee status in New Zealand they weren't going to necessarily be penalised because they were here under a specific provision. So what we've agreed and what's in the bill is that anyone who comes in over the age of 55 will basically just need to complete their time until they get to the age of 65. So they would spend a maximum of no more than 10 years if they were aged 55 but basically making sure that when they got to the age of 65 they were entitled to superannuation. In terms of when people who are refugees come in who are younger than that—aged 45 to 55—we basically put a test on which made it the earliest of which reduced the time as much as possible to meet the residency requirement before they reached the age of 65. What we didn't want to see is refugees having to work into their 70s when they've come here often late in life due to extenuating circumstances in their own countries and I think that was a pretty good outcome.The other big thing is the Realm countries and of course what I'm talking about are the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau. I remember having a conversation with Mark Brown before he was Prime Minister actually. I think we were playing rugby in the capital one night and he was explaining to me the issue of New Zealanders and particularly New Zealanders who are going over there—and I remember the example was working on Air New Zealand planes mechanics whatever—doing critical jobs for the Cook Islands who were increasingly having to say Well I'm going to have to go back to New Zealand to complete my last five years over the age of 50." And of course for a country like the Cooks or Niue or Tokelau to lose those critical people for them to have to go back to New Zealand to do their five years from the age of 50 onwards actually was not only very disruptive at a personal level but actually quite critically important to the country concerned. So the select committee made changes to enable people to be able to complete their five years in those Realm countries and I think that's a very good outcome.Finally I just want to acknowledge not only Minister Carmel Sepuloni personally but also the members of the Finance and Expenditure Committee and also the officials. I looked back at the original advice to the committee and it was pretty damning but in the end they were very helpful in terms of helping the committee get this bill into a shape that I think we're all pretty comfortable with. And I know superannuation's a huge issue. This is but a small step in improving the affordability of New Zealand superannuation over time but I think it's an important first step. Thank you very much Madam Speaker.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): The question is that the motion be agreed to."