Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker and I'll try and speak through my cold and hope I can be understood. It's a great pleasure to rise on behalf of the Green Party in support of the second reading of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill and the introduction of a mandatory requirement for registration. I think in getting to speak at this stage that it's hard not to reflect back on the journey to get here and I'm looking at the speech that the Greens' spokesperson gave in the introduction of the original legislation in 2003. After listening to the submissions at that time she noted that we felt that in order to enhance the quality of social work the bill should reflect a commitment by the Government to work towards the mandatory registration of all social workers within an agreed and specified time frame. We had offered the suggestion of 10 years in that time because we noted and understood from listening to submitters at that time some of the logistical and financial challenges for our practitioners and NGOs to get to that point of mandatory registration. So here we are 15 years later at that point again of still in some ways having that conversation. I've been in Parliament now for seven years and this issue has been with me the whole time—sitting on the select committee and hearing from the Social Workers Registration Board which appeared in front of the committee and told us how things were going and what issues they saw out in the community. Every time they presented to us they raised their concerns that anybody could operate as the social worker and there was no ability to actually be able to engage with the quality of their practice or to intervene if indeed there was a dangerous practice happening.It took until the now Minister Carmel Sepuloni introduced a member's bill that really prompted the shift in the conversation to Let's do this" which then enabled the National Government to support it. While they voted down that legislation actually there was support for an investigation into it and then there was the introduction of this bill.So it's one of the things that I reflect on in all of that process. I think the submissions in terms of the Social Services and Community Committee also showed that we are on a journey and it's really important that we start moving to more partnership with the social work profession. We talk and there have been speeches from everybody in this House tonight acknowledging the importance of social workers to our collective well-being as a society. The job is incredibly difficult. You can't come up with an A plus B equals C kind of flow chart for how to respond and work with families or individuals. Lives are complex and there's often a lot of danger particularly for people who have been discriminated against and pushed out into the margins.So it requires a huge amount of skill to do this job well and safely and we have undervalued and under-recognised that work. I would say that over the last 10 years there was a sense that often when we were discussing really tricky complex social issues actually there were simple solutions—there aren't. It's ultimately about getting good social policy that supports everyone and enables relationships to be able to support change for individuals and whānau and families. That is why we need to respect and value the work of social workers.So clearly through the process of the select committee many issues were raised about this legislation. Certainly Parliament was given the feedback loudly and clearly that the initial legislation as introduced by the last Government lacked a defined scope of practice for social work. There was a real concern that our community organisations and anybody employing social workers may just take the name out and in effect keep the job the same to avoid the cost of registering and that we would not see an improvement in practice and support for our families.I think it is important to note with that that there are two sides of that. So there is the issue around the scope of practice and there's also the acknowledgment of the absolute reality that our social services have been run down and neglected and that they have not been funded properly. So when I heard a National Party member just earlier speaking about financial barriers and implications for our community organisations from mandatory reporting and that being raised just the irony of that sat with me quite deeply after we heard those organisations being questioned again and again by the previous Government about whether they were making any difference whatsoever in our community and that absolutely a freeze on their funding had implications for their staff to the point that some of those organisations' staff members were having to go to food banks to be able to support themselves and feed themselves and their families because of the decisions and the undervaluing of those organisations' work which is connected to not understanding the vital importance of social work within our society. So I have absolute confidence that this Government will take on that issue and that the Greens have always stood strongly for well-resourced and properly valued community services and we will continue to do that.I know that this is out of scope for this stage of the debate but I will also acknowledge that there is a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that has been tabled and that will be discussed in the committee stage. I know that there are some concerns amongst some social workers that I really look forward to exploring through that debate and for the Minister for Social Development to be answering some of those concerns to put people's minds at rest over that. I would point out too that my understanding is that that SOP has been developed in partnership with the PSA and the alliance of social workers—so with the profession. That is a very significant change in approach from what we had under the previous Government who thought they could sort it all out. Actually this Government recognises that in working with the experts in our communities and different sectors we get a better result. So my understanding is the SOP is a reflection of that new approach.I would flag that—and I'll be interested in the Minister's discussion around the potential of this in that debate—I have heard a concern raised that the Social Workers Registration Board will play a very significant role in terms of the new direction of this legislation and that those positions are all Government-appointed. There is a discussion about when social work is not just about working with individuals but about challenging Governments to do better and get our social policy settings right and they have a duty to tell us things that we may not want to hear—actually whether we would want to build in a new mechanism to enable more independence for that board which may protect into the future the values of this Government. So I'll be interested in that discussion as we go forward. But in conclusion this has been a really long time coming and I want to congratulate the Minister for progressing this through."