Barker Rick: Appointments — OmbudsmanText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarker Rick: Appointments — Ombudsman[Sitting date: 11 October 2007. Volume:642;Page:12315. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs): A large part of me personally hopes that this resolution fails simply because if it fails then Dave McGee would stay here. Dave McGee has been in this House as long as I have been in Parliament—that is since 1993—and I have often had the feeling that he is almost inseparable from this place. I am left with the impression that should Dave McGee finally walk out the door across the forecourt of Parliament a crack will open up which will run through the building as well.I say that because Dave McGee has been a very powerful force for keeping this place together. I have seen this debating chamber in full rage on various issues and the veryinstitution we have here being pushed to the absolute limit. Its conventions and its procedures have been under pressure from every quarter but Dave has been the quiet calm person at the centre always with reason and logic always compelling and always fearlessly promoting the interests of this House and the rights and privileges of the House of members of the Government and of the Opposition—the rights and privileges of all—but making sure that this institution was untarnished no matter what happened.Dave has been a marvellous person in refurbishing this Parliament in all its ways and institutions. I had the privilege of being here when we had the transition from first past the post to MMP and what a remarkable transition it was. Many many questions had to be answered and many many issues came up that no one had actually foreseen. On every particular occasion Dave came to the discussions with suggestions that were well-thought-out and well prepared and with impeccable logic and great respect for the institution.It has been well said before that Dave has been a great writer about this place. His book is quite remarkable. It is extensive and it is exhaustive. It throws light on the dimmest and darkest recesses of this place and is all eminently readable. It is quite remarkable. I personally think that it should have been nominated for a Montana New Zealand Book Award but I am not sure that the readership was quite wide enough. But it is a fabulously well-written book. I have often referred people to it for answers and they have been very surprised at how easy it is to find those answers.Dave has helped all of us and I want to narrow my contribution primarily to the personal relationship that I am sure each MP has in dealing with Dave McGee. As a senior Government whip I had many dealings with Dave McGee. There would have been quite a number of occasions when we were confronted by a problem. Similarly I went to see Dave on many occasions when I was in Opposition confronted with a problem and seeking advice. I would go into Dave’s office where the desk was surrounded by books—a very scholarly and bookish place it was indeed—and I would sit down and talk to Dave. I would outline the situation I had and seek advice from Dave on how I could outmanoeuvre the Opposition trick it and do other things or outmanoeuvre the Government—whatever the strategy was. I knew that I received absolutely impeccable advice from Dave McGee. When I left I often had the impression that I had either been in ahead of or after the Opposition whip who had been asking similar questions and who would have been given absolutely impeccable advice. Dave would never ever let the advice he gave to one be reflected in the advice he gave to others. I have this wonderful impression of Dave McGee that he is probably the only person in this building who did not leak. This place is known for leaks but I have always felt that Dave would never leak and that he was always a person of unquestionable integrity. Any confidence one gave to him was trusted and respected.In my opinion Dave has also been a very fearless advocate for this House and for its privileges—fearless in his advice regardless of whom it was he was giving it to and what the reaction would be. I recall one particular occasion in the Standing Orders Committee when we were discussing the changing role of the executive with regard to Parliament. In the past the executive had simply signed off on international conventions and international orders without any due reference to Parliament. But under MMP Dave said we would have to refer the matter to Parliament because the executive was no longer guaranteed to have an absolute majority and therefore the matter would have to be referred to a select committee which it was. We talked about the timing and so on and people raised the issue of what would happen if a convention or an international agreement had to be signed within so many days the select committee did not have time to completely consider it and the executive was about to sign—what would we do then?Dave’s advice was simply that the select committee should stare down the executive—as blunt as that. I thought: “Gee this is a person whom I would rely on in any situation for advice.”The other thing I felt about Dave McGee was that he was not just an umpire; I always thought he was the equivalent of the television match official—the video umpire—for the Speaker who had to make the rulings. And he was a video umpire who did not have the opportunity to look at all the replays. I will recount a story that describes what I think are the incredible qualities of Dave McGee. I was sitting in the senior whip’s chair where Mr Barnett is sitting now it was late at night and we were in one of those set-piece debates where people were tediously reading well-prepared and boring speeches on legislation that was not impressive in itself. As this white noise was droning on and droning on I was struggling like the rest of the members to maintain consciousness. But sitting in the Clerk’s chair was Dave McGee. He was reading as he usually did a large thick esoteric book on the law of goodness knows which jurisdiction—he was carefully reading through it. In the middle of this boring speech someone suddenly leapt up and said: “Point of order.” I thought: “Point of order? What can this be for?”. I was trying to figure out who was speaking and what was going on. As I looked over at Dave McGee I saw that he had looked up from his book reached forward pulled out a notepad and was starting to write the recommendation to the Speaker. He had not only been reading the book; he had been listening to the debate had recognised what the point of order was and he was writing out what the Speaker’s response was to be with reference to the Standing Orders and the Speakers’ rulings. That is an incredible quality—he could follow so many different conversations and have a wonderful analysis of them.Dave McGee has been an outstanding servant of this place. He has given outstanding service in every way both in terms of his intellectual ability his professional ability his integrity and in the way in which he has dealt with individual members of Parliament and the select committees. He has been a fearless advocate for this place and a great defender of it. He will be sorely missed. He has been a great servant. But in our loss I think that the Ombudsmen’s service will have gained an outstanding individual. If we were ever to nominate one of the best people we could nominate for that office we could do no better than Dave McGee. He leaves this place with my very best wishes and I place on record my appreciation—and I am sure the appreciation of many many other members of Parliament who are here today and who have gone before—for the advice the support and the integrity in the way in which he has conducted his job and the support he has given to members the Speaker and every part of the institution of this fine Parliament of New Zealand. This Parliament is in such good heart today because in part of the outstanding service of Dave McGee. Dave I want to say: “Thank you very much.”