Roy Heather: Criminal Justice Amendment Bill (No 7) — Consideration of Report of Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
Roy Heather: Criminal Justice Amendment Bill (No 7) — Consideration of Report of Health Committee Procedure In Committee 
[Volume:612;Page:9529] 
HEATHER ROY (ACT) 
: 
 I would like to start where the previous speaker left off. The ACT party too has had quite enough of a lack of democracy—a lack of scrutiny—with this legislation. The Minister stood up before and said that his 44-page Supplementary Order Paper was necessary to the bill and that it contained just minor changes. Why is it 44 pages long if it contains just minor changes? There has been no scrutiny of those changes at all. 
The Minister complimented the Health Committee on its fine very thorough work on the bill. I would like to read out a piece from page 12 of the commentary on the bill as it was reported back. It states: “Occasionally Government departments will propose substantive and significant changes to bills after select committees have finished hearing submissions. We disapprove of that practice.” 
The committee stated that it disapproved of that practice yet the Minister congratulated it on its work then still put forward a 44-page Supplementary Order Paper. The commentary goes on to state: “Committees are not simply vehicles for Government amendments to legislation:”—and ACT New Zealand would agree with that—“they are committees of Parliament with a duty to scrutinise legislation and provide for public input so that New Zealand is provided with the best legislation possible …”. 
I recently attended a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association seminar and was asked to present on the select committee process in New Zealand. I must say that the other delegates from around the Commonwealth were impressed with our select committee process. They were very much in favour of the cross-party support that is often gained from that process and they were also very impressed with the amount of public scrutiny our bills receive. Because of those very things I felt very proud of our select committee process when I was there. I think those delegates would be appalled if I turned up today and said: “Well actually since I spoke to you the Government has done nothing but put up hefty Supplementary Order Papers to Government bills that do not receive scrutiny from the members of select committees or from the public. That is clearly wrong as the commentary on the bill as reported from the Health Committee states. 
Like New Zealand First we in the ACT party are saying that enough is enough. We will no longer support this Supplementary Order Paper. We were very happy to support the bill which has very sensible measures in it but we will not put up with the lack of democracy and scrutiny that is becoming a habit with this Government. It is not good enough. 
Mr Goff says the Supplementary Order Paper does not contain anything controversial yet if we look at the explanatory note on the back page of it we see in the bottom bullet point—and the National Party has mentioned this as did the New Zealand First speaker who spoke before me—“Instead of the mandatory remand provision”— 
Hon Chris Carter 
: What about Donna? 
HEATHER ROY 
: Perhaps that member on the Labour side would like to stand up and take a call—although that would prolong the process that those members are trying to shut down. They do not want to see democracy or scrutiny in this country. They will not stand up and argue this issue properly. Instead they just hurl abuse across the Chamber. Where does that get us? I ask Mr Carter what he thinks the people of New Zealand think of that. I suspect they think very little of those tactics. 
I come back to the bill and the quotation from the Supplementary Order Paper’s explanatory note: “Instead of the mandatory remand provision”—and there is a blatant conflict here—“the Supplementary Order Paper”— 
David Benson-Pope 
: What about Mainframe? 
HEATHER ROY 
: Mr Benson-Pope wants to have a go now—not in his own time but in other members’ time. Perhaps he would like to read the Supplementary Order Paper. Maybe he has not had the opportunity to do that either because it did not come out until yesterday—despite the fact that the Government has had 4 years to bring it to the attention of the New Zealand public and to the members of the Health Committee. They should be given the opportunity now to look at the Supplementary Order Paper in some detail so that it can be scrutinised as it should be. 
I go back to quoting from the explanatory note on the Supplementary Order Paper. Government members do not want to hear this because they know they are wrong. If they were at all worried they would listen.