Power Simon: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Power Simon: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:642;Page:12551] 
SIMON POWER (National—Rangitikei) 
: 
 I think the Minister who has just resumed her seat Annette King probably summed up the intent of the Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill quite well when she said that whistle-blowing carries with it risks for the person or people who decide to make information public from an organisation with which they may have a relationship or association. She rightly made the point that often in these cases silence is not in the public interest. National will be supporting this bill going to the select committee and will wait with interest to see what particular submissions are made in respect of the bill. 
As the explanatory note states at the start of the bill: “The Bill is designed to give the Ombudsmen an enhanced guiding reviewing and investigating role …”. That is an important step that this legislation encourages. The Protected Disclosures Act 2000 was reviewed by Mary Scholtens QC and in the report she brought to light some evidence of delays and the like that make this legislation necessary today. The bill will give more explicit information and advising powers to the Ombudsman but of course the whistleblower in any set of circumstances takes on some considerable personal risk when deciding to take what is often a courageous step to bring to light information that is in the public interest. 
The provisions of the bill essentially do the following. The bill broadens the scope of who is a protected person and treats board members and volunteers in organisations as employees for the purposes of the Act. Although the National Party historically would be reluctant to see legislation define people as employees if indeed they had decided to contract in another way with a particular organisation for the purposes of this legislation it is an appropriate capture. The bill protects witnesses in support of a whistleblower. That is also an important provision for third parties who may stand alongside or provide support for those who are actually carrying out the so-called act of whistle-blowing. The bill allows protection for those who substantially comply with the Act but also for some minor technical failure. 
As was said earlier the Ombudsman can take a managing and coordinating role but the bill does not give the Ombudsman the role of advocate for the whistleblower. I think that is an important point. Ultimately the Ombudsman is not there to advocate a case but rather to exercise certain powers in order to ensure that the process around the disclosure of the information is kept as proper and as pure as possible. I wonder whether our own Dave McGee may find himself one of the first users of this particular legislation when it passes. I would certainly trust him to get it right if indeed he was one of the people charged with making some of the decisions carrying out some of the actions or exercising some of the powers that the Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill facilitates. 
As I said earlier the bill moves to apply the protection of employees to a wider group of whistleblowers. Chester Borrows said that a good example would be Clive Solomon who was a board member of the Whanganui District Health Board and who drew some public scrutiny to the practices at Wanganui Hospital. It will be interesting to see whether a bill such as this could have protected someone like Kit Richards at the time he entered into an interesting situation in respect of information from Timberlands. Although the bill gives the extension of protection and the provisions give a more facilitative role to the Ombudsman there is a desire for a fair and sensible regime to surround the disclosure of information where as the Minister put it—and I could not put it better myself—silence is not an option if the public interest outweighs the risk that that individual is taking in disclosing such information. 
On that basis National will be supporting the bill going to the select committee. We will take some interest in the more technical application of some of the provisions during the hearing of submissions on the bill.