Brownlee Gerry: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Brownlee Gerry: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17912] 
GERRY BROWNLEE (Deputy Leader—National) 
: 
 This part of the Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill deals with Crown entity reporting and financial obligations. I will pick up on the theme established by Mr Key and Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith in their contributions earlier. It seems to me that they were fundamentally asking why we need to have 100 pages of legislation that set out how a Crown entity must report when it has always been implicit that that agency must report anyway. 
What does that suggest? Does it suggest that somehow this Government is stacked full of incompetent Ministers who do not know how to go through the reports of the various departments and entities they are responsible for and find the information they need? I do not believe that. I think they are capable of doing that. I think most people in this Chamber are capable of doing that. But this 100-odd pages of legislation is about the philosophy of the Labour Party and the Labour Government in trying to make the State bigger and in having greater control over it so that it can meddle much more directly in the everyday lives of New Zealanders. 
United Future members might sit over there grin and say that that is a ridiculous and preposterous suggestion but they have not yet bothered to make a contribution to this debate. They have been good enough to put us into urgency until some time next week so that we can get this legislation passed but they have no opinion on it whatsoever. As far as United Future is concerned whatever Helen Clark says is the rule. That is it—one just goes by it. One just takes on board whatever Michael Cullen says too and runs with it. I think I am right in suggesting that the Labour Party is about growing the bureaucracy in this country and gaining greater control of it so that it can meddle more directly in individual New Zealanders’ lives. 
I refer the Committee to clause 190. 
Gordon Copeland 
: Are you for or against? 
GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The United Future member wants to know if National members are for or against. We are against the bill; we are opposed to it. 
I refer the Committee to clause 190(4): “A Crown entity must publish its annual report”—it is a preposterous suggestion that it may not anyway—“as soon as practicable after it has been presented to the House …” etc. The clause then states that the Minister may have some effect on how that information is reported under clause 213. If we look at clause 213 we see that the Minister will receive the information from the Crown entity or department and can then determine just what part of it will be reported to the public. If that is not about trying to control the information flow to prevent New Zealanders from knowing what is going on in the entities they own then I do not know what is. 
Clause 213(1) states that the Minister may: “(a) prescribe minimum requirements concerning the publication of information …”. He can tell the entities how much to publish what not to publish and when to publish. As other colleagues in the Committee have pointed out the clause also gives the capacity for the Minister to ignore official information requests and to obfuscate any expectation that an answer to a parliamentary question may be given correctly. Overall the clause is consistent with my view that it is about saying to New Zealanders: “We are the Government; we know best; listen to us and we will do what we think is right for you. You New Zealanders do not need to have a say in this.” 
Just to point out how ridiculous petty and pathetic this entire part is we need look only at the tiny little clause that deals with the issue of gifting. Clause 206A states: “(1) Any money or property that is gifted to a Crown entity may be accepted or disclaimed by a Crown entity.” What on earth do we need to put that in the law for? Entities may accept a gift or bequest or they may not. If that were not in the law what would be different? 
I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. Noting that neither the Minister in the chair David Cunliffe nor the chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee seem particularly interested in participating in this debate I seek the leave of the Committee to ask questions about this important part of Mr John Key who has done an enormous amount of work on the select committee and knows a terrific amount about the bill. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Leave is sought for that purpose. Is there any objection? There is.