Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare. Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak at this first reading of the Social Workers Registration Legislation Bill. Where to begin really? Firstly it is with the 2013 census where there were 18000 identified social workers—of those 5500 had chosen to be registered. It then had me thinking about how you register. Who qualifies to register? So I had a look on the Social Workers Registration Board website and in fact to register as a social worker in New Zealand you have to have attended the following institutions: Ara Institute of Canterbury Bethlehem Tertiary Institute Eastern Institute of Technology Massey University Manukau Institute of Technology NorthTec The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand Te Wānanga o Aotearoa Te Wānanaga o Raukawa The University of Auckland Unitec New Zealand The University of Canterbury The University of Otago The University of Waikato Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology Whitireia New Zealand or Wintec.In fact in New Zealand to be registered as a social worker you have to have a Bachelor's degree. There is a big difference between someone with a Bachelor's degree and obviously someone who has done a 1-year or a 2-year social work certificate which is also offered in New Zealand. So at the heart of this new registration process was actually an ability for people to have gone to university and to have sat what is a 4-year degree—that is my undergraduate qualification actually; I did a Bachelor of social policy and social work from Massey. Interestingly in that 4-year Bachelor's degree you have to do practicums—in the second year it was a 3-month practical and in the fourth year it was a 6-month practical. I am finding this whole registration process really interesting because based on what the census has told us 12500 people in New Zealand who are practising social workers have not gone through a university system to qualify to register in the first place which is what I thought one of the issues was that should have been focused on.In fact I want to commend the Minister and some of what has been included in the legislation. I especially want to highlight section 13 which is going to recognise prior learning. So these are people who for all intents and purposes have got the practical skills to be social workers. A lot of them are currently working within our Ministry of Social Development. This legislation really is the merging of formal qualification through a university process but also recognising that people who have good social work practice will in fact be able to through this piece of legislation be registered social workers. But I am going to be incredibly interested in how that process happens.When we look at the recognised prior-learning process within Massey University for example actually it is really good. If you want to get an undergrad degree at Massey University you have to do 360 credits and that university allows you to be recognised for 70 percent of the course time through your recognised prior learning depending on your expertise and your practice in the process but at minimum you have to do 30 percent of the coursework. So what I am thinking will happen through the passage of this legislation—I mean I would love it for those 18000 people who have self-identified as social workers to be registered social workers.I think the implementation of this legislation is going to be a merging of those universities that offer these degrees and then providing at minimum for some of our people who are working in the system and who have not got the full qualifications the papers and opportunities to then qualify. Once they are licensed which is another aspect of this bill they will be able to retain that licence for the rest of their professional careers. The other aspect of the recognition of prior learning at most universities is that for 3 of the last 7 years you have to have worked in the relevant area of service and also for one of those years it has to have been full-time. So I see that as a really good solution to what has been I think a conundrum. I can think back to when this whole issue started in 2003 when in fact we created the Social Worker Registration Board but we made it a voluntary process and that was actually done to address what I have just talked about.Within this legislation we are going to provide a 5-year window for that evaluation to take place and pathways for people who are working in the sector to get qualified and to be registered. So I really do commend the select committee's recommendations to the Minister and commend the Minister for actually taking on board the work. We do know as my colleague Carmel Sepuloni has pointed out that in July 2015 she did have a bill pulled out of the ballot. It was the Social Workers Registration (Mandatory Registration) Amendment Bill and she did that in consultation with the sector. I also know that Darroch Ball had in fact a piece of legislation that wanted to focus specifically on children. I think for everybody in this House we want to make sure that the people who are looking after our most vulnerable and who are working within our Ministry of Social Development and for Child Youth and Family—Oranga Tamariki now—are the people whom we are empowering through their qualifications to provide the best care and support for our most vulnerable.I do want to highlight however a letter that I have. It is to Brenda Pilott from Minister Anne Tolley and I am actually going to quote from it: The possibilities of cost increases were also part of our decision making about the issue but exact costs cannot yet be estimated. This is particularly because of uncertainties about the number of social workers in the NGO sector who are not currently registered the number who will need to undertake additional training and how the sector might respond to the new requirements. I expect that as any additional costs arising from the changes become apparent they will"—and I want to really emphasis this point—"become part of normal contract negotiations between NGOs and Government agencies with whom they contract."The reason I am highlighting this is that there will be some social workers who will have to attend university courses and in doing my investigation I found out that an undergrad degree now costs between $5800 and $9200 per annum. If some of our social workers are going to have to do 30 percent of what is the normal 4-year degree obviously someone is going to have to pay for that. So I highlight that because I think that in the letter that I have just read from the intent of the Minister and the intent of the Government is not to burden our NGO sector—it is actually to support our NGO sector—and that it will support that transition for our social workers to comply with what I think is a very good piece of legislation. So we are very excited about the developments.Just for me finally I am going to do what everyone else has taken the opportunity to do. I am going to miss you Chester. You are awesome. You are one of the best Deputy Speakers we have ever had. I think you play with a fair hand. You have taught me a lesson about I guess how you respond to—and I am talking about the dog now—the things you love people you love and the teams that you are proud to be part of. I think it is conceivable that you can pat someone on the head and give them a boot up the arse at the same time sometimes so thank you very much.I also just want to say that I think we have had a really successful 51st parliamentary term in many respects. I just want to highlight that I have been involved in some cross-party groups such as our LGBTI network and I want to acknowledge in the House my colleague Jan Logie Paul Foster-Bell—wherever he may be—and also our cross-party women's group. I think our focus on family violence and issues to do with migrant and refugee women has been really satisfying and we have had a little bit of a win.To everybody who is leaving I just want to wish them all the best in the next phase of their life journey. To those of us who are now going back to our electorates and who will be campaigning hard to be the representative for our communities I wish you all the best.Finally—and I cannot not say this—go the Black Ferns! We are playing Canada at 11 p.m. If we win that match we will qualify and go through to the semi-finals to be played next Wednesday. And on Sunday 27 August I am hoping that the Black Ferns will bring home the bacon and bring that cup home to Aotearoa. Nō reira tēnā koutou katoa."