Williams Andrew: Veterans’ Support Bill — First ReadingText is subject to correctionWilliams Andrew: Veterans’ Support Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 22 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:14111. Text is subject to correction.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): I would like to take a call on behalf of New Zealand First as the veterans’ affairs spokesperson to support the Veterans’ Support Bill. This bill gives effect to the recommendations of the Law Commission in its 2010 report. It is somewhat disappointing that it has taken 3 years to finally get to this Chamber and to Parliament but it is better late than never. Unfortunately it is too late for many veterans who would have liked to see this a long time ago. The 1954 War Pensions Act was designed to meet the needs of Second World War veterans and it is time for it to be replaced with this bill to bring it into the more modern era in terms of legislation.What this bill does is acknowledge community responsibility for injury illness or death of veterans as a result of being placed in harm’s way in the service of New Zealand. It also ensures there is a provision for veterans with fair entitlement. It promotes equal treatment of equal claims and it promotes a benevolent approach to claims.It is split into two schemes because ACC was introduced in 1974. So as a result the entitlements pre-1974 apply under scheme one in this bill and post-1974 in the ACC era under scheme two. It ensures that Viet Nam veterans and those before them are still fully covered under the original Act and are not in any way disadvantaged because of the post-1974 ACC situation. This also ensures that spouse and partner entitlement will be approved through this bill and that is a very good thing. In many areas the spouses and partners of veterans have great difficulty and extreme hardship and this bill goes a long way to addressing that. Veterans from both schemes will have access to medical treatment and rehabilitation for accepted conditions. They will have access to home help and lawnmowing for service-related conditions. There will also be funeral grants for service-related deaths.Two boards are being established under this bill. The War Pensions Advisory Board is replaced by the Veterans’ Advisory Board and a Specialist Medical Advisory Panel will be established. This panel will assume responsibility for making grants and awards. It is good that a specialist medical panel will be involved with this because for so many of the veterans it is very much in a medical area that they are seeking assistance where they need to be identified for the impacts that they have suffered as a result of going to service for this country and where they do require medical support and medical attention. We are increasingly seeing that situation as a result of those who served in Viet Nam with agent orange those who were in the Pacific with nuclear contamination and those who have been in other areas of war around the world where there has been contamination or where they have been subjected to conditions that have resulted in their having very poor health in later life.New Zealand First has always been a strong advocate for our veterans. New Zealand First places great value and recognition on the service given by our veterans. Our nation has a special obligation to them particularly to those who have suffered as a result of their service. In this respect New Zealand First has a number of principles that we put forward and stand by. We will ensure that veterans’ pensions maintain relativity plus an additional 10 percent in recognition of their sacrifice. We will implement the recommendation of the Law Commission’s review of the War Pensions Act absolutely 100 percent because we believe the work that the Law Commission did was very thorough very worthy and should not have taken this amount of time to be implemented. We will work with the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association towards providing veterans with a sustainable health-care package.New Zealand First when we were in cooperation with the Labour Government negotiated $1 million for RSA social support and health services and we are committed to ensuring the ongoing financial support for that which is in the order of $250000 a year. This Government has reduced that to $150000 per year. We are committed to putting that back up to the full extent of that $250000 per year to support veterans with health and social services which are most important. That includes helping veterans get to hospitals helping volunteers to be supported to take veterans for medical attention and that sort of thing. That $100000 difference that the Government has cut out of that fund per year is a huge amount because that directly impacts on many many volunteers and people who support the veterans in their time of need.New Zealand First will also increase the radiation-related health conditions listed on the veterans’ affairs presumptive list to include all cancers because we believe that this country and this Government should be covering those veterans for all cancers involved whether from agent orange or from nuclear radiation and for whatever cancers have been formed as a result of being in the theatre of war. We will support claims by veterans and their children who have been affected by agent orange and any other such issues. We are also fully committed to supporting all areas of the RSA including the likes of the National War Memorial park in Wellington to recognise the service and sacrifices of the veterans to this country.This bill is an important bill. It affects so many people throughout New Zealand. We are constantly hearing very sad stories about the conditions and the lives of veterans who have gone to war who have gone to serve this country and who are now struggling and also of their families their children and their loved ones who are suffering. And many of them are having to take care of those veterans during their later years.I think it is a sad indictment that it has taken so long for this bill to come to the House. It is a very lengthy document. I am looking forward to it coming through to the Social Services Committee so that when it is fully considered when the submissionscome in—and I am sure that there will be many hundreds of them from all over New Zealand—this Parliament will give huge weight to this document will pass it and in fact will increase the provisions that are shown in this document to the full extent that is possible.