Cunliffe David: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Social Security Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 31 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2780. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn): Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. We would expect nothing less of your good self. The truth of it is that it took longer to endure that speech than it took to draft the bill in the first place. This is the ultimate nothing bill. This must be an embarrassment to the Government. For goodness’ sake! Here we are in the dead of late evening working to pass a bill that—how many people actually made submissions on? Mr Assistant Speaker I hesitate to draw to your attention the fact that only two—two—members of the New Zealand public were excited enough about this bill to actually make a submission. What does that tell you about this Government?Chris Bishop: A good Government.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It tells you that Mr Bishop needs to go back to Northland because he is part of a trend and that trend is called “third-term-itis”. This is a Government in decay. It is a Government that I need to come back to the substance of the bill to describe.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): That is exactly right.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: It is with an amazing bout of perspicacity that I am learning to intuit your body language from the Chair and I think that is fantastic.I come back to the substance of the bill. It really has been an amazing experience to hear the member who has just resumed her seat Dr Parmjeet Parmar read out the Minister for Social Development’s notes. That is what one comes here for is it not as a Government backbencher—to get the Minister to pass the notes back and read them out again just in case any poor long-suffering radio listener failed to hear them the first time. What a miserable experience those Government backbenchers are having. They are seeing their prospects of ever entering the executive in their mortal lifetimes slip slip slipping away with the current Government’s poll rating.I will get back to the substance of the bill. I would like to turn my attention to a very important part of the bill—namely the student allowances. I am the Labour spokesperson on tertiary education so I thought it was appropriate to remind New Zealanders that this Government is royally dismantling the tertiary education system. It did so by ruining university councils recently. It has done so by gutting student associations and—Hon Amy Adams: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Despite several of your warnings to the member he still has not in any way addressed the bill and I would ask you to bring him back to it.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): I think the question of relevance is a question for the Speaker’s judgment and I will work on it but without your assistance.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. You can lead a horse to water and occasionally they sip but—The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member will now speak about the bill and not about the ruling or the ruled-out point of order.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: Thank you. It is good to see that that Minister has not lost her sense of humour. The bill does touch on closing a loophole and nobody bothered to tell the speaker who has just resumed her seat that in fact the Opposition or at least the Labour Opposition is supporting the bill—supporting the bill—because we believe in good fiscal management and closing down loopholes. There is no reason that students who are eligible for the accommodation allowance should be able to get a different social security benefit just because of a legal error. So of course that should be tidied up. There is no debate about that. But frankly who can blame the students? Student allowance rates have barely increased while the price of rental accommodation particularly in Auckland Wellington and Christchurch has absolutely skyrocketed. Students have seen course fees increase by up to 4 to 5 percent every year and they have absorbed a hike in GST as well. Student loans have been cut for part-time students and have been limited for postgraduate students.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Trevor Mallard): Order! The member was up until the last sentence or so marginally close to discussing the bill. When he was talking about allowances and rents that was probably OK but when he gets on to loans I think he gets beyond it.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I will follow your guidance Mr Assistant Speaker. I was endeavouring to rebut the point made by the previous speaker that the Government somehow had evidence of its generosity to tertiary students.I would draw your attention to the regulatory impact statement drafted by Treasury in relation to this bill which is where the Social Services Committee noted that only two submissions had been received. Treasury notes that despite small numbers of students being likely to know of the loophole it is inequitable for the loophole to be left and different payment levels available. Who could argue with that? I think Treasury itself has unwittingly drawn the attention of Parliament and the New Zealand public to the metanarrative that underlies this bill. Here is a Government that has nothing to do but push through Parliament legislation that only two New Zealanders could be bothered commenting on and that Treasury says students themselves are barely aware of. So here we are frankly taking up Parliament’s valuable time and your own close attention Mr Assistant Speaker with a bill that is worthy of the Opposition’s support but hardly likely to inspire New Zealanders to give a fourth term to members opposite who have clearly run out of puff run out of imagination run out of goodwill and who are rapidly running out of support.