Chadwick Steve: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chadwick Steve: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 09 December 2010. Volume:669;Page:16246. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 One has to wonder where that member Colin King was a decade ago if he thinks this issue is all peace and light. Labour will definitely be opposing the State Sector Management Bill. 
There is an element of this bill that we do not have a problem with at all and that is in respect of the amalgamation of the Foundation for Research Science and Technology and the Ministry of Research Science and Technology to form the new Ministry of Science and Innovation. We think that is great. That is fine and I think we will wait with great interest to see what will emerge from the new Ministry of Science and Innovation especially with Minister Mapp at the helm. Great things are obviously— 
Sue Moroney 
: Anything could happen. 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: Anything could happen at all. 
But the aspect of this bill that we are very opposed to for very serious reasons is the proposed merger of Archives New Zealand and the National Library with the Department of Internal Affairs. These institutions are a key part of our democracy—absolutely key. They are about keeping Government departments transparent and the information held in those departments protected. When the Minister of State Services gave his opening speech on this bill it was the most limp speech that I have ever heard. It was quietly given in a measured way and it looked as though it would not panic the punters. But actually this measure shows the determination of National to continue an unrelenting attack on public servants whom they see as just being bureaucrats and bean counters not as people who value their jobs do their jobs with passion and pride and take with great seriousness the roles and the functions of their jobs. The Minister saw this merger in his speech as being simply a little merger that tucks Archives New Zealand and the National Library—including the iconic Alexander Turnbull Library—into the Department of Internal Affairs. National’s position is that we should not worry because it has sorted out everything about the roles and functions of the National Librarian and of the Chief Archivist. It says we should trust it to know what it is doing. 
This merger looks to be all very simple and sort of logical but actually behind it there is an insidious and unrelenting lack of respect for public servants who have done their job. 
I found it interesting that Colin King stood up and gave a silly little speech just reading the opening paragraph of the commentary on the bill—National members have been told to speak just for about 10 seconds on every bill so that they will be out of here by about midday. Mr King was not around a decade ago. A decade ago there was a failed experiment in which Archives New Zealand was put under the Department of Internal Affairs. What goes around comes around; now we are doing it again. Relationships were so bad between the Department of Internal Affairs and Archives New Zealand that they went to court 10 years ago. So what a waste of time and money this merger is. 
The Minister could only come up with the justification that this great merger all in the name of increased efficiency better services for the public better accountability and great improvements in the quality of service provision from the so-called bureaucrats—who are wonderful respected professionals in their jobs—will save only $165000. Archives New Zealand and the National Library have always had an absolutely clean audit from the Audit Office—no problems; nothing that needed to be tidied up. They do their job professionally as stand-alone entities so why in the name of efficiency would one merge them into the Department of Internal Affairs for the sake of saving the princely sum of $165000 and risk that grievances will arise again in the future? The roles of the Chief Archivist and the National Librarian will be third-tier positions and they will not even have face-to-face meetings on a weekly basis with the Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs. I think that is an absolute insult. 
If Chris Finlayson who does know about the functions of the National Library and Archives New Zealand and about the importance of the material that they preserve had been a little more aware of what was being proposed by stealth by Tony Ryall if he had been a bit more aware and read his Cabinet papers in time he would have jumped up and said this was a foolish move. An absolutely flawed move like this took us to court a decade ago. As a lawyer Minister Finlayson knows that. He knows about the risks if the public record is not kept transparent and people are not held accountable for it. Minister Finlayson knows about the risks but he failed to challenge Nathan Guy and Tony Ryall so this cute little merger this cute little amalgamation went through. Members can look at the resulting effect: 15 jobs are lost. Mr Ryall would say “Only 15—what’s that? That’s great. It’s all in the name of efficiency.” These are not just jobs. These are people who are held accountable for and who know how to manage the public record of both libraries and who know how to look after the body of historical archival material held by the Alexander Turnbull Library. These libraries are not something that can be merged with the Department of Internal Affairs quite easily even though National says the merger does not affect their roles because it has sorted those out in the bill. 
I think this situation is an absolute disgrace. The Chief Archivist and the National Librarian must have statutory independence and their independence is limited if they become part of the Department of Internal Affairs. What happened a decade ago when this happened? It was logical: they struggled to find a voice. If they are put into the third-tier level of management in a huge department a burgeoning huge department then how will they have a voice? How will they have their independence? How can the National Librarian and Chief Archivist go and meet their Minister? That will not happen. They will be swallowed up in the department and will struggle to have a voice to advocate for the record that they manage. This is an absolutely stupid move. It is a flawed move. It has already caused great distress in the library and the archive sector of New Zealand. Those who work in the sector are not fuddy-duddy bureaucrats who feel threatened by the loss of a job; they are there to preserve the function of their job and it has been shown that they have an excellent record. For the sake of $165000 a year and the loss of 15 jobs National thinks this is a great little cute move but it is not. 
In conclusion I say the merger is not necessary at all. It will not generate better public services; it is driven purely by an ideological desire to reduce the number of Government agencies. This is flawed logic. The Minister for Arts Culture and Heritage failed to represent and advocate for Archives New Zealand and the National Library as being very important functions of a creative country in a sector that has a great sense of history. The merger will fail and I ask members to watch to see what will happen with the next audit report. We will argue against this merger in more depth when we get into the Committee stage of this bill.