Cunliffe David: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 17 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1624. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): To the member who has just resumed his seat here is a number about students: 4600. That is approximately the number of places in our universities that have been denied this academic year by a Government that without proper consultation with students or parents raised the bar for university entrance from National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 2 to NCEA level 3. Furthermore it tightened the prerequisites in a number of ways that have left universities like Waikato University and others gasping because they were not consulted and they did not have input. What we have seen now is a gross overreaction by the Government.This party believes in high standards but it also believes that tertiary education is a must-have for all New Zealanders who are able and willing to access it. It is crucial for our economy it is crucial for building a positive future for New Zealand and it is absolutely crucial to ensuring that every Kiwi kid—the kid of a doctor the kid of a driver—can grow up to be the best that they can be.Mr Assistant Speaker Mallard this is also I think my first contribution since the summer break. I would like to congratulate you on your nuptials and also on your role in the Chair. I would like to say that it has been a great summer for New Zealanders or most New Zealanders although we recognise those who have been doing it tough. It is great weather which is tough for the farmers and great now that we are back at work. We do so with a heavy heart today. We acknowledge the passing of Api Mahuika the rangatira of Ngati Porou rūnanga who has made a marked contribution to the progress of that iwi and who has been a tremendous kaitiaki for his rohe and his people. I always enjoyed “Uncle Api’s” company. He was a hard doer—never shy about saying what his iwi needed—but always honourable and always a great participant. So we remember him and his whānau today.I also wish to join with other colleagues in acknowledging the passing today of Celia Lashlie the famous author amongst other things of a book about enabling gorgeous boys to become great young men. As a dad of two gorgeous boys Celia I thank you for your contribution. We mourn your passing and we sit with your whānau today as well.There is something of a paradox in this Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) being brought to the House in one of the first weeks of the sitting session this year. Here is a Government that in its opening Address in Reply debate has been full of sound and fury. Now we see the legislative programme and we realise indeed as Shakespeare would say it signifies nothing because this top-priority bill—and it is frankly a pretty trivial little bill that just takes out two minor loopholes in the social security legislation one on ACC and the other on student allowances which I will comment on shortly—really is just a tidy-up housekeeping piece of legislation.What it really tells New Zealand is this Government has run out of ideas. It is so beset with shambles—the shambles of Skycity. Remember that too-good-to-be-true conference centre that was not going to cost anybody a penny and was going to employ 10000 builders all over Auckland? They will not need social security because the Government was going to have them building casinos but now of course we find out that was all a chimera. The Government rolled the dice and came up short and if it were not for the pressure from the Opposition and the thousands of New Zealanders who petitioned on that matter the Government would have sold us out by another $140 million - odd.Then of course there is the cover-up on Mike Sabin and the great State house sell-off. What a terrible crisis affecting so many—yes come back to the bill.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): The member has now gone for nearly half his speech. Can we get through the introduction and on to the bill.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: May I turn to the part of the bill that seeks to close a loophole that allows students to claim the Work and Income accommodation supplement instead of the student allowance in instances where it is more generous.I would like to join with my colleague Sue Moroney in saying that it is very hard to blame students for taking advantage of the law as it currently stands. That is because student allowance rates have barely increased while the prices of rental accommodation have skyrocketed particularly in Auckland and in Christchurch. Students have seen course fees raised consistently by the maximum 4 percent per annum and they have also had to absorb a hike in GST. Student loans have been cut for part-time students and of course the eligibility for student loans has been capped to exclude postgraduate students completing their degrees. The student loan repayment rate minimum has been increased by 20 percent and a new $40 annual student loan fee has been tacked on.All of that goes to show one thing: this Government is out of touch with the reality faced by most New Zealand students today. Students are having to borrow more sweat more and spend more time away from their studies and they are doing it because this Government is making it tougher. This bill does not help. Instead of legislation that could have undertaken the kind of review that the Labour Opposition has promised students a ground up review of student allowances this Government is fiddling while Rome burns—fiddling while Rome burns. As I say what it should be talking about is its mishandling of measures which has seen 4500 students excluded from our universities this year by its bungled implementation of the shift to NCEA level 3.That is covered in section 61EA of the Act and I must say I have very mixed feelings about that part of it. That is going to be something we will cover when in Government in our ground up review of student allowances and budgets. The rest of it amends section 71 of the principal Act to allow Work and Income to backdate benefit payments to applicants who previously received ACC from an accredited employer as well as from ACC itself. This we do support because it harmonises the way that ACC recipients are treated whether they apply directly to the corporation or through their employers. That makes sense.We are not going to oppose the bill notwithstanding the reservations we have on the student component because frankly these kinds of tidy-ups are things that should happen routinely. But New Zealanders are going to be very well aware that in this the second sitting week of the House the Government has come up empty-handed. The Government is so beset with shambles of its own making and so embarrassed about the Prime Minister pirouetting on the head of a pin with every statement he makes looking slipperier and slipperier in the eyes of New Zealanders. It is beset with the shambles on Skycity the Sabin affair the State house sell-off and a general malaise that sees members opposite studying their shoelaces instead of concentrating on the issues that matter to New Zealanders.This legislation is sad because it shows a Government that is out of ideas a Government that has stopped caring a Government that has got way way too used to the baubles of office and one that has entered in very flaccid style its third and final term.