Bennett David: Affordable Healthcare Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBennett David: Affordable Healthcare Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7951. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID BENNETT (National—Hamilton East): It is great to see that Mr Peters and his cult have come down to the House this evening. We have got the same lines we have always got about polls and things like that but you never listen to Mr Peters because that is the stuff he always comes to this House with.This bill is another example of Mr Peters and New Zealand First being anti-immigration. That is all this bill is about. It is not about money. It is saying no to people coming to New Zealand. That is the anti-immigration party and this is another anti-immigration bill put forward by that party. It is a disgrace to this Parliament to see that party in this House and we know exactly what it thinks about immigration. That is something that is against the good nature of all New Zealanders. We have a free and open country. We are a country that wants to take its place in the modern world. We have a country that welcomes people to this country and welcomes their families and we do not discriminate against our migrants like the New Zealand First Party wants to.We have always had in New Zealand an immigration process and a policy of treating all migrants the same where we give them the same opportunities and abilities. We do not discriminate and that is something that that party over there seeks to bring into our legislation. It seeks to discriminate against people on the basis of age. It is seeking to discriminate on the basis of the parent category of immigration. That goes against the fundamental principles of this Parliament and of this country and New Zealanders do not believe in that approach because New Zealanders are fair-minded people who want to welcome migrants and give them a fair opportunity to be here unlike the New Zealand First Party. When we look at this—Pita Paraone: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The member has been on his feet for some minutes now and no mention no reference has been made to the bill that is before the House.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I understand. I hear what the member is saying—2 minutes. Now we will have some substantive debate on what this bill is about.DAVID BENNETT: OK. Let us have a look at this bill the Affordable Healthcare Bill. It says that if someone is in the parent category they have to have compulsory medical insurance. How would that be enforced? Let us take the example of somebody coming into New Zealand who maybe did have medical insurance but did not keep it for the whole 10 years. Would that party than deport that person after 6 years when they are on dialysis in a hospital or if they are getting cancer treatment and are about to die? Would that party be so cruel as to deport that person? I do not think it would because it knows that New Zealanders would not want that to happen. This bill is not enforceable because the rules that it sets cannot be implemented in our community.What about refugees? Would refugees be required to—[Interruption] No? Well the bill does not say that. This is the party that wants to increase the refugee quota to 1000 refugees and this bill is silent about refugees. Is the New Zealand First Party going to make refugees have to actually go and get insurance policies? What about if someone had pre-existing medical conditions? What if somebody came into New Zealand with a pre-existing medical condition and could not get insurance for that but still could get into New Zealand because they passed the medical test? [Interruption]The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Order! I would actually like to hear what is going on and what is being said as long as it is on the subject.DAVID BENNETT: So there are some major holes in this legislation as we have just noted.But there is another element of this legislation we have to look at and that is the discriminatory part of the legislation which the Attorney-General noted in his report. The bill discriminates on the basis of age. Some people who could come into the parent category could be as young as 35 years of age. They could have a lifetime ahead of them in this country and they would be discriminated against under this bill. The report of the Attorney-General says that there is a prima facie case of discrimination on family status parenthood—and national origin because this bill actually creates an exemption for Pacific people. It says that people from the Pacific do not have to get a 10-year insurance policy. Let us have a look at the definition. There is no definition of “Pacific country” in the bill but the Pacific would include countries like China the US Australia and all those other countries around the Pacific Ocean. So is that part—Ron Mark: Read the bill.DAVID BENNETT: I have read the bill member and it does not say that. There is no definition of the Pacific in the bill. Why should Pacific Island category migrants be given a different category from any other migrant to New Zealand? What is the difference between somebody who is on the Pacific Rim and somebody who may have come to this country from Africa or Europe or somewhere else?I ask the Labour Party and the Green Party how they can support a bill that has been said to be a breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. How can the Labour Party and the Green Party members who come into this House every day—we saw it today we saw it yesterday—talking about human rights and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act support a bill that is considered to be against that Act? I ask how the Labour Party and the Green Party can sleep at night when they are supporting bills like this. They cannot do that under that legislation.This bill is an attack on migrants. That is what it is. It is not a bill to save money; it is an attack on migrants. We know that party is against migration. Mr Peters we know your stance on this. We know what your deputy said last week about migrants. It is a disgrace that this party is in this Parliament and that these kinds of bills are put forward by a party like that—a party that is purely discriminatory and against people having fair rights and an equal chance in New Zealand. We will not support this bill.