Davidson Marama: Social Security (Commencement of Benefits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDavidson Marama: Social Security (Commencement of Benefits) Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading[Sitting date: 17 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:8176. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MARAMA DAVIDSON (Green): Kia ora. This bill seeks to fix a mistake that recently came to light that found that the law was not being followed. The law was not being followed and people receiving a benefit were missing out on a day’s pay and that has been happening since 1998.What I would like to raise in this short call is that the law says that they are entitled to this—this is a legal entitlement. Retrospective legislation to deny people what is owed to them is I think an affront to the rule of law and when that affront to the rule of law harshly impacts on those already doing it tough then to me that is a stain on our moral society on a transparent society and on a society that has to be based on trust which my colleague Jan Logie has already referred to. The operational blunders have been raised often and rightly I believe.We go to intent again which I feel is a good point to raise. Firstly where does it say what the intent was? I think the onus should be on the Government to prove that. But secondly even though that was the intent the law was quite clear and so this is a legal entitlement that we should be upholding as per good lawmaking in this country. Some 10000 people have already applied to get what they are entitled to so this we know directly affects a huge number of New Zealanders and would help in numerous and meaningful ways.I know that the previous speaker Jono Naylor would prefer that we do not talk about them and that we try to ignore the stories of absolute hardship and also the stories where this would help and the stories where this would be an investment in our children—for example those who are homeless according to the report released today. Denying this payment is absolutely going to add to the hardship that too many are already feeling. For example the economy and the state of employment at the moment are up and down. They are tumultuous so people have needed to move in and out of employment for so many valid reasons.I know that in my own past as a mother of young children in full-time paid employment it was validly difficult trying to uphold that in light of huge costs. I had to keep trying to find a job that would enable me to work but would also properly cover my basic living costs. So that is a very real situation that many people face. You know that is the nature of our current employment market. It is precarious.Again I would like to support what Poto Williams has said. I also wanted to talk about our seasonal workers. Often the nature of their work is unstable. They are often in and out of these employment situations and this has undoubtedly hit them hard. Those stand-down periods have undoubtedly hit them hard.My last point is that I also stand—again despite what some members would like to ignore—to acknowledge the disproportional effect that this will have on Māori Pacific and migrant communities. I am asking for written responses to see whether we can also get a handle on how many children this payment would benefit. We are opposed to this bill. Thank you.