Nakhle RimaRIMA NAKHLE (National—Takanini): I rise to speak to this bill that we've been discussing the Social Workers Registration Legislation Amendment Bill. I would also like to start by acknowledging a few people that have done tremendous mahi in this milieu. I'd like to acknowledge Sharon Wilson-Davis from STRIVE Community Trust and her team there. Now STRIVE Community Trust for the benefit of anyone that hasn't come across this organisation before they are essentially a social wraparound service and the backbone of this service is their social workers. I've come to experience what they do STRIVE and the excellent social workers they have through my work at Te Mahia Community Village which I've spoken about before the emergency and transitional housing facility in Takanini that I've worked with. Now truly social workers are unsung heroes. The amount of care and compassion that they put into the delicate work a lot of them find themselves in is commendable. So I would like to acknowledge STRIVE. I would like to acknowledge the work you do Sharon and all your team.I come from a family of workers in the mental health arena including my sister who's a mental health nurse specialist and my second sister who's a psychologist. I also see how beneficial work in the mental health space is. So what this bill is doing is that we are saying yes we agree—that is the Government and most of us in the House—that there needs to be another pathway to being qualified as a social worker. Currently there's two pathways. There's the traditional sense of becoming registered with a traditional form of qualification—that's a prescribed form of qualification—and then there's the alternative experience pathway which we've been speaking about today. In 2017 the Government of the day agreed to remove this but we've since said we need to delay this removal for a number of factors two of them being COVID and recently the cyclones. This really exacerbated the need to have social workers available and so therefore we said Look we've got to delay scrapping this pathway until we kind of find that we fill up those gaps." because as we've said there's currently a gap of about 700 social workers. Unfortunately the supply continues to decrease—as I said it's been exacerbated by the recent events of the last few years—so delaying will ensure that this additional pathway to qualification is temporarily available. Now there's kōrero going around about whether it should be two years more or four years more. The amendment that the Hon Louise Upston has put forward is that this be for two years. What I would like to highlight—something that hasn't really been highlighted in the course of our conversations today—is that all applications submitted before the repeal date of 28 February 2026 will continue to be processed by the Social Workers Registration Board. So I think it's really important to just highlight that fact. I know that there's some concern from the other side of the House about the time frame going from four years to two years and that's why I would like to reiterate that we need to remember something that's available which is that applications submitted before the cut-off date will continue to be processed. That's an important point to really make. I just feel that sometimes when we make arguments we shouldn't be omitting certain points.We've recognised that the four years was just a little bit too long and it could impact on public trust and confidence in the social work profession. My colleague Greg Fleming he's a gentleman that really puts himself in a lot of these fields and he said that he as well has had a number of conversations with professionals in this field who also told them that look two years is that good kind of Goldilocks balance in terms of what we're dealing with here today. Two years balances the need to account for the current shortage of social workers while promoting a timely transition to mandatory qualifications.What I also would like to raise today is that yes as I said earlier the unsung heroes social workers—something I feel needs to be said to anyone listening today something that my sister says and she's as I said a psychologist so it's in that milieu of mental health work is: don't be afraid to go and seek help. Don't be embarrassed and don't be shy because a lot can come out of seeking help. I commend this bill to the House.Motion agreed to.Bill read a third time."