Parmar Parmjeet: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParmar Parmjeet: Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 18 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4597. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr PARMJEET PARMAR (National): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker for the opportunity to take this call to speak on the Social Assistance (Portability to Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau) Bill in its third reading. This is a great bill for the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau because this bill seeks to provide greater pension flexibility for those people who wish to retire in these three Pacific nations—Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau.This bill as acknowledged by the member who just spoke Darroch Ball is about recognising our special constitutional ties with these three Pacific nations which enjoy shared New Zealand citizenship and unique legal arrangements. Under our current portability arrangement eligible people are required to be residents and present here in New Zealand at the time of applying for their superannuation at the age of 65. This bill is to remove that requirement.There is a residence condition which is that to be eligible for New Zealand superannuation or the veterans pension people should have lived here for 10 years after the age of 20 which includes 5 years after the age of 50. This means that people—those who wish to—can actually retire in these three Island countries at the age of 55. They can go to these Island countries to retire at the age of 55 and when they turn 65 they can apply for their New Zealand superannuation from any of these three Pacific nations.The Social Services Committee received 13 submissions and they were thoroughly considered. Six were orally heard and I can say that most of those submissions were in support of this bill. I want to acknowledge our chair Alfred Ngaro and I also want to acknowledge our Minister the Hon Anne Tolley for the work that she has done on this bill. I also want to acknowledge all submitters for the time they took to come and make those submissions. We had thorough discussions on points that were raised.One issue that came up and widely discussed was depopulation. This was actually linked to the 5 years after 50 rule. I also note the Supplementary Order Paper 71 by New Zealand First to make a change to exempt these three Pacific nations the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau from this 5 years after 50 rule.I was here in the Chamber when we were debating the Committee stage of this bill. My observation was that I did not expect Labour to be fair. The New Zealand First members were pleading to get support for this Supplementary Order Paper but they could not provide even a single reason why their Supplementary Order Paper should be supported. The only reason that came from their side was that it is not that many people; it is not about how many people. It is about fairness and it is about having a balanced approach. That was coming from the party that thinks it has some common sense. It thinks it has some common sense but there was no common sense in its Supplementary Order Paper to get support.Hon Simon Bridges: No common sense.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: No common sense.Hon Simon Bridges: Common sense is decidedly uncommon.Dr PARMJEET PARMAR: That is true. There was no common sense. There was no fairness. There was no reason given as to why that rule should be amended. It was very interesting for me to sit here and watch that.But this National Government is committed to all. This National Government is working for all. We are an efficient and fair Government. We are not unfair like them. This bill going through does not mean that it will apply only to those people who originally came from the Cook Islands Niue or Tokelau. Once this bill goes through this provision will be available to all those eligible people those who wish to retire in these three Pacific nations. It is the kind of flexibility that we want to provide to people. It does not mean that all people those who are from the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau will take up this provision. So it is about providing greater flexibility. We know that there are around 650 people in the Pacific who are receiving New Zealand superannuation and out of those 650 people around 300 are in the Cook Islands. We also know that with this legislation going through there will be around 245 people who will benefit with an increase of 16 people per year.The New Zealand Government is always committed to its relationship with the Pacific nations. We have strong cultural political and economic ties with the Pacific nations. With these three Pacific nations the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau we have a very special relationship. We call it free association. As a result of this free association the people from these three Pacific nations enjoy New Zealand superannuation and also there is substantial assistance from our Government to their Governments so there is this very close linkage. Employment opportunities here in New Zealand are better so it is natural that the people from these Pacific nations are attracted to New Zealand.With these three Pacific nations there is even greater attraction because their people have New Zealand citizenship and rights to residence. The issue of depopulation is a real one. That is why this bill is really important. It is to help these three Pacific nations with that issue. This bill will make people go to these Pacific nations if they wish to at the age of 55 and at the age of 65 they can apply for their New Zealand superannuation from any of these three Pacific nations.This National Government recognises that New Zealanders have worked hard and they deserve to enjoy their retirement. We want them to have as many options as possible. It is very hard to say what the cost of this to the Crownwill be but we know that this move will definitely help these three Pacific nations—the Cook Islands Niue and Tokelau. This bill is to help these three Pacific nations socially and economically and it will also reduce the impact of depopulation that they have in these three Pacific nations.This bill is about keeping it fair. Once the bill goes through it will be applicable to all eligible people—those who wish to retire in these three Pacific nations. This 5 years after 50 rule applies to all even to New Zealand - born people—those who have gone overseas and come back and want to spend their retirement here or those who want to go to other countries and spend their retirement there. It is about fairness and it is about having a balanced approach. As I said this National Government is about fairness. We analyse everything from a fairness point of view. That is why we are not supporting the exemption to the 5 years after 50 rule in Supplementary Order Paper 71.This bill is a great bill to support these three Pacific nations. This bill is about recognising our special relationship with these three Pacific nations. I am really delighted to commend this bill to the House and to support it. Thank you.