Ngaro AlfredHon ALFRED NGARO (National): Thank you Mr Chair. I am so pleased that you are the only arbiter of that which is relevant to the bill and to the debate that's in the committee and so I do appreciate the opportunity here.Just in regards to the clauses that are pertinent to this part of the debate in the committee stage in the House I do want to raise the issue in regards to the commencement date that my colleague the Hon Louise Upston had raised. We actually had the Social Workers Registration Board before the Social Services and Community Committee last week. One of the issues that was raised I suppose was the issue around capacity. We're fully aware as the Minister for Social Development has reiterated just a moment ago of the two-year transition process. Well what was given to us was a bigger and broader picture in regards to current capacity challenges that are before the Social Workers Registration Board and whether over that period of time from the commencement date—and again we thought that it would have been earlier. It's not; it's been prolonged another six months from the time it's been brought back to the House.But to the Minister I suppose the question that I have which has come out of the reports that were given to us in the select committee is that at the moment there are capacity issues for the Social Workers Registration Board. The commencement date of this bill will put pressure on the board. They talked about the fact that currently at the moment there are 6300 social workers that are registered and approximately 2000 that are not. So that's the capacity there but they also enlightened us to the fact that there are now approximately another 1100 social workers about to be graduated over the next year or two that's coming up.So that is a relevant issue around the commencement date. It is important that we seek the guidance from the Minister where she's taken this into consideration because the issue of capacity was raised in regards to the Social Workers Registration Board being able to handle this pressure of the changes that are there. So for instance for those that are eligible to be not only on the board—and we acknowledge the changes. In fact we acknowledge the new chairperson of the board that's now coming on to the board but also too the workforce that is currently there at the moment. We know that at the moment in order to process the changes—not just the Supplementary Order Paper; the whole bill in itself. So the question to the Minister is: has she taken that into consideration?When we asked the issue around funding at the moment as it currently sits for the Social Workers Registration Board with the current funding base that they have—and the commencement date is important to this—it's still on a fees-based process. They did talk about the fact that they were seeking advice and were looking at putting an application through but again this is important to the commencement date because this will add further pressure because once the commencement date the Royal assent—once that's been had then what will happen is that the board itself will have to enact the legislation. What we've heard quite clearly at the moment is that even if it's a two-year period that period of time may still put pressure on the Social Workers Registration Board and I think that's critically important. So we'd like to hear from the Minister. I imagine she'll get advice from the officials. Again this is hot off the press from the board itself in regards to their concerns; we are just relaying those concerns in the Chamber in this committee stage.The other parts of the clause do talk about the registration of persons or practising experience under section 13. Again we didn't have any issues with this when it was going through the select committee process. But the question to the Minister in this regards which was not debated in the other parts was in the issue of recognised prior learnings and how that would be enacted. In Part 2 clause 2 of that it talks about registration of persons based on practical experience under section 13 following repeal of section 13. So this is another relevant issue. It's a small issue but quite important because a number of those that have been practising in the field have had recognised prior learnings. The question to the Minister is that will that be included in this part in the consideration when it comes to the issue of accreditation and then moving on to manage your registration as social workers in the field as well? So I raise that issue as well.The last part that I want to raise in the brief time that I have available to me is in regards to complaints assessment committees. I think again this was raised in regards to a process and whether the Minister again will seek advice from the advisers in regards to this process. It was talked about whether this would be something—now I know the regulatory side of this will be the Social Workers Registration Board but whether there was a consideration and this came from the feedback last week with the board in regards to an advisory committee that would oversee the process around complaints and the assessment of those complaints. In other words would there be a collaborative working group with those from the associations not the Social Workers Registration Board that would then form an oversight over the committee.