Kieran McAnulty. I call Maureen Pugh. Thank you
Mr Chair. I'm very pleased to be taking
another call on part 5 and as
the minister has pointed out, this is
very much intact as it was prior
to SOP 25 being tabled, but
as my colleague Simon O'Connor
has pointed out, that the committee stage is our
opportunity to
opportunity to improve legislation as it goes through and so we do take
this time to analyse in some de
tail and this is our obligation
as legislators in this House. So I go
back to SOP in the name of Louise
Upston, and it refers to part 5,
clause 217 and it's
that MSD must advise the person of the hierarchy
of the sanctions and ensure that
person understands the
impacts of any breaches. The hierarchy of those
sanctions require that for a
first breach of this clause, that there
is a reduction in their main benefit,
for the second failure a suspension
of a main benefit, and then for the
third failure, there
is a cancellation. So when we have a look
at what the obligations of
the person are, it is that they must
be available for reasonable
work opportunities and the second
obligation is they must accept any
reasonable offer and for
my area down in West Coast Tasman, sir,
the seasonal workers are also a big part
of the employment
opportunities that are presented to people on benefits.
So this obligation that they
must accept any reasonable work offer
is very reasonable indeed. And
the third obligation is that they must
participate in interviews, they must
go for interviews.
participate in interviews, they must go for interviews. In my experience
in talking to some employers,
that turning up to an interview can be
a challenge. I support the fact we
have these hierarchy of
sanctions that are available to
MSD to implement in their breaches from
people who are on those benefits. I
want to go back to a contribution
made be our newest MP
in the House, Dan Bidois, from the great
electorate of Northcote. He spoke
to part 5 as well. He referred
to clause 232, where the compliance was
dependent on any assistance
specified by
specified by MSD including availability of
availability of online MSD services. He did outline a few, but
there's a few more that I would like to use as
examples in why the online
availability could
availability could be included in this bill. One of the things that
comes to my mind, mainly
because I guess I'm a rural MP, and the great
electorate of West Coast Tasman,
we have absolutely
have absolutely no public transport, not from one end of the
electorate to the other is there
any opportunity for public transport.
The closest we get are school buses.
So having availability to the online
services is absolutely essential.
We've got to also realise that under
the current environment the ability
for people to drive to MSD offices,
to update or to interview, etc, is
becoming more and more challenges.
Part of the reason is that hardly
anyone can afford the
fuel because because of the fuel taxes that have
been imposed. So the online
availability is absolutely
essential to people, especially in
rural and provincial New Zealand. As
champions of the regions I would expect New
Zealand First will appreciate
of the regions I would expect New Zealand First will appreciate we
do need to use the technology. And
we have
need to use the technology. And we
have, what are the bills called when we... We get a whole
have, what are the bills called when
can't remember. I can't remember what they're called. Omnibus.
Omnibus bills, we do. We
have statutes amendments, where we parcel
together a whole lot
of minor changes that are required in bills.
And so I have lost
my train of thought. Mr Chair, I think I've
made my point and I think that we do have
an opportunity to bring this up to
date and fit for purpose in the
21st Century. The Hon Carmel Sepuloni.
I'm going to, because it's
more than once that they have been raised and
I did talk about the fact that it
seemed that the explanatory note was
not fitting with the amend I
will point out why the amendments
were not appropriate, given that Maureen
Pugh has spoken to this. The first
one I will speak to is
Louise Upston's one