van de Molen TimTIM VAN DE MOLEN (National—Waikato): Thank you Mr Speaker. It's a privilege to rise and take a call on the Veterans' Support Amendment Bill (No 2) and I'd like to start by acknowledging our veterans spokesperson Chris Penk. He is a fine member of our team and has actually himself served in the New Zealand and Australian defence forces so he is very happy to see this coming before the Parliament and he supports it as does the rest of the National Party. So I'd like to put that on record to start with—that we will be supporting this.I'd also like to start by acknowledging all of those current and former servicemen and servicewomen in the New Zealand Defence Force. The work that they do is impressive. It's at times tough. It's at times horrific and it is absolutely vital that we respect that service and we put the right measures in place to support them when they come back and need it. That transition can be difficult and unfortunately we see many instances where there are mental health issues that arise as a result of service undertaken on behalf of our country and this in particular addresses some of those aspects. I think that's an appropriate measure.Look over the last few years we've seen an increasing focus and awareness understanding of the impact of mental health issues on the broader population and so it's appropriate to see that picked up here as well. But I'd also like to acknowledge Professor Ron Paterson for obviously undertaking the review that he did delivered in March 2018 after consulting widely. That's an important critical aspect right? It's got to be consulted widely and it's encouraging to see that that did take place. Whilst we are having a truncated select committee process which I'll always have some concern with I am glad to see that there was broad consultation undertaken before this report was actually published. So that is good to see.There's a few elements and the Minister has done a good job of traversing the key aspects in this but I particularly wanted to just touch a bit more on that mental health aspect not just for the veterans but actually extending that now to include family members is an appropriate recognition that the impact can be much broader than the individual who has served. So we do need to take account of that broader impact on their families too.There are a number of aspects that for the average person reading this bill may seem reasonably trivial but actually these changes are going to make a real difference for some of those veterans and that is absolutely important for us to do—things like extending the definition of child" to be encompassing any veteran who has been a guardian of a child or young person. So that is again a nice way of providing just a little bit of extra support. These aren't massive things individually but added together they can make that big difference and so it is absolutely critical that we support that wherever we can.So on that basis we are supporting it through to select committee. As I said it's a shortened select committee process which by rule I don't generally agree with but in this instance I think there is still a window of opportunity there for submitters to have a voice if they choose to and I would encourage them to do that. Any veterans who feel like they would like additional changes made can bring those forward. I've been approached by some within my own electorate in the Waikato who have shared some views on what changes should be made particularly around the "qualifying operational service"—that's the official term. Interestingly the Minister noted as well that until that is determined as such by the Minister they're not eligible. And for some of those operations where they have been withheld for operational sensitivity purposes that has presented a problem—so looking to address that here as well.All in all it's an important step. When we last considered this—the Veterans' Support Act rather—when it was passed in 2014 it had cross-party support at that time. So it was great to see broad recognition of the important role veterans have played and the importance therefore of supporting them post their service. And so I hope that we will see the same support again this evening and I look forward to canvassing this more in the select committee process. So on that basis the National Party supports this bill."