Garcia PauloPAULO GARCIA (National—New Lynn): I am very pleased to follow after the other member's speech because his speech always has a very calming effect and it's much appreciated in this debating chamber.I would like to go back to the beginnings of why we have the Social Workers Registration Act. From the time that the first social work courses were offered in Victoria University in the 1950s through to the passage of the Social Workers Registration Act in 2003 the object of the Act was to build and retain confidence in the profession of social work. At that time it was considered a crucial step forward in the journey towards raising the status of social work as a profession in New Zealand.The registration fostered uniformity across a very diverse expanse of a professional entity that social work provides. It was a clear pathway for enhancing the qualifications and the skills that were more and more being demanded of the many social workers that have come into the professional space over time.I take this opportunity to say a word of praise for all of the social workers in New Zealand who do a lot of hard work and who impact on the society so much. I include in that word of appreciation also the very many Filipinos who do social work in New Zealand. Social workers work in very difficult and oftentimes confronting circumstances that demand a very high level of professionalism and skill. We want therefore to ensure this level of competence and this level of accountability for the work that social workers do because they cater to a public that can be said to be extremely vulnerable and they are the first line—the front-liners—who deal with a very very vulnerable public.An article from Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work highlights that the Social Workers Registration Board goes through the process that ensures that the registration of social workers confirms their demonstrated competencies and capabilities as they are enabled to hold themselves out in dealing with the general public and more particularly the very large and very diverse cultural and ethnic society that New Zealand is.Now by 2021 the Act made social workers' registration mandatory. There are two avenues to become registered. It is actually such a big opportunity for many social workers who may not have possessed the recognised qualifications that the registration board required but had what was described to be extensive personal experience in doing social work over a period of time in New Zealand and that if they were able to demonstrate that then they could be registered. So there is no better opportunity for social workers who are doing social work through experience to become registered. But going back to the 2003 Act where the object was to enhance and ensure that the public that the social workers in New Zealand deal with understands and holds to a high degree of respect and accountability social workers then it is incumbent upon social workers to take advantage of that opportunity to become registered if not through qualifications but through their actual work experience done over many years.Now in 2017 this side of the House agreed to an extension of time for the opportunity to become registered under experience as a pathway to four years. Now we support this move with the amendment by the Minister to shorten that extension from four years to two. The object there is to hasten those who are already able and those who have been made aware of the pathway to become registered through work experience in New Zealand over time.The opportunity has been there for quite some time and there is really no opportunity to delay and that's part of the reason why a shortened extension is deemed appropriate. There remains two years to be able to do that should this amendment pass and two years also for the opportunity to become qualified which is something that everyone should take advantage of. I have met and spoken within our friends with so many social workers who are Filipinos and I keep telling them to take advantage of this opportunity to become registered. And there are very different reasons why they could be slow in taking that up: they are steeped in work; they are working very late hours over many days—not just the normal 40-hour work week. And so that's one of the hurdles. They just ignore it because they're working working working and they will just end up missing the opportunity. So a gentle push and a reminder that that extension is now proposed to be amended to two years will hopefully facilitate their improved uptake and serious focus on the opportunity. On this basis we commend this bill to the House.