Xu-Nan LawrenceDr LAWRENCE XU-NAN (Green): Thank you Mr Speaker. The Green Party is in this case also in support of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income (Controlling Interests) Amendment Bill. One of the things that was debated hotly and at length in the committee stage was the title of this particular bill which granted is quite lengthy. In this particular case the previous speakers have already mentioned in terms of the history of this bill that this bill was one of those bills that was introduced under the previous Government and it's being brought to the House today in its third reading. Unfortunately for me I was not present for the first reading of the bill but I was present for the second reading of the bill and like the Minister of Finance has already previously stated one of the things that was debated at length was the independence of this particular legislation. However I note that something that was mentioned during the committee stage in this case was section 64 of the New Zealand Superannuation and Retirement Income Act which is around the ministerial direction that in certain cases the Minister is able to provide to the Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation on the funding for the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (NZSF). In this particular case however it must be said—like what the previous speaker has already spoken on—that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund has had a reputation for being world leading in environmental social and governance integration. So for that I think the Minister has made it clear that she is confident in the ability of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to actually undertake that particular business. Again like we mentioned in the second reading in this particular case the NZSF itself has also independently contained a list of exclusions and I think this is one of the reasons why the NZSF is considered to be world leading in terms of environmental social and governance integration. It is because of the fact that they take a very ethical approach to the way that they are funding and they are making their funds in this particular case not so much prudishly but I guess conservatively like the Minister has suggested. But it is stated that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund does not fund things around the tobacco industry and it does not fund it in terms of mining in West Papua or whale meat or Tokyo Electric Power. So I think with that the Green Party is confident that the New Zealand Superannuation Fund is doing something that is good for both the people and the planet. One of the other things we would like to pick up on—and this was also mentioned previously—is that we see the New Zealand Superannuation Fund evolve and kind of grow and this is why we have this particular amendment. Although it is not overtly substantial in terms of amendment it is incredibly important in terms of the repercussions and also the ability for the Guardians to expand on their controlling interests. In this particular case like a previous speaker said one of the things that the Green Party is particularly heartened by is the fact that the Government has retracted one of their election promises or election announcements which was to increase the superannuation age to 67. So we are also happy to see that the Government has decided to keep the superannuation age at 65 years of age. I think that as we see the expanded portfolio of the NZSF we're also hoping to take into consideration other restrictions that are currently in place for New Zealand superannuation. In this particular case I am reminded that one of the members talked during the committee stage about the South Africans in their electorate and that is a reminder of my own communities—within the Chinese communities and migrant communities—in terms of the limitation that is placed on the superannuation which is that you have to be in Aotearoa New Zealand for 10 years in order to be eligible for New Zealand superannuation. I think that that is something that as we see the expansion of the portfolio of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund and potentially increased revenue streams for this we are able to see potentially something that will be beneficial to the migrant community by seeing a reduction in that wait time of 10 years or a decade. Particularly I think that in this case when we're looking at—as was addressed previously—certain populations where their scientifically proven age and also life expectancy does not go too far beyond the age of 65 we do see particularly in this case that Māori and Pasifika populations are not receiving the full benefit of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund that they deserve. Again in this particular case within the Pasifika communities we're looking at the fact that they're being penalised not only in terms of the life expectancy that we observe but also in terms of the fact that if they have to wait 10 years for them to gain the enjoyment of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund we're going to see that a significant number of people will not be eligible for that. But in saying that overall the Green Party is in support of this particular bill. What I really appreciate is that it was one of the first bills I spoke on in this House as the Green Party's newest—though I'm no longer the Green Party's newest MP. Todd Stephenson: It keeps changing. Dr LAWRENCE XU-NAN: It does change a little bit. But in this particular case as the senior spokesperson for the Greens—what can I say? I am really enjoying it. I really appreciate all of you here. It's been a really good and robust debate and I enjoyed the second reading of this bill and also the committee stage. But in any case the Green Party commends this bill to the House. Thank you.