Ryall Tony: Research Science and Technology Bill National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Amendment Bill Public Records Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ryall Tony: Research Science and Technology Bill National Library of New Zealand (Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa) Amendment Bill Public Records Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 09 December 2010. Volume:669;Page:16310. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TONY RYALL (Minister of State Services) 
: 
 I move  
That the Research Science and Technology Bill the National Library of New Zealand (Te PunaMatauranga o Aotearoa) Amendment Bill and the Public Records Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time 
. I would like to start by thanking the chair of the Education and Science Committee Mr Allan Peachey members of the committee and committee staff for their work on what was formerly the State Sector Management Bill. I would also like to acknowledge the Parliamentary Counsel Office the State Services Commission and affected agencies for their support. 
The passing of this legislation is important because it now provides certainty to the many staff who work in the affected agencies. They were expecting the new Ministry of Science and Innovation to begin on 1 February and they have been working towards that. Similarly staff in the National Library and in Archives New Zealand have been working towards their incorporation into the Department of Internal Affairs from 1 February next year. The passing of this legislation enables them to do that. 
In referring to the debate that went on in the Committee stage it is important to identify a number of features that need to be reported and stated in the third readings. The Hon Nathan Guy made it quite clear that in the view of the Crown Law Office this legislation actually strengthens the independence of the Chief Archivist. Similarly I reject the criticism of members opposite that statutory officers within departments cannot act independently. 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Oh my God! 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: Ms Chadwick says: “Oh my God!” as though with a sense of disbelief. Well she should know that David Henry as Chief Electoral Officer a statutory officer in the Department of Justice has shown that statutory officers act with great integrity. He revealed the fact that Labour spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars in the 2005 general election when it ripped off taxpayers in order to win the election. 
Grant Robertson 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I take offence at the statement the Minister has just made about the Labour Party and I ask that he withdraw and apologise. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: You are objecting to? 
Grant Robertson 
: I am objecting to the accusation he has made about members on this side of the House. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Speaker’s ruling 44/5 applies. If the member has taken objection I ask the member to withdraw the comment. 
Hon TONY RYALL 
: I withdraw. David Henry showed that the Labour Party used public money and had to pay it back. What do we call it when a party uses $800000 of taxpayers’ money that it has to pay back? I use that example not to cause controversy but to alert members to the fact that statutory officers do act with independence and we would expect that to happen following the incorporation of these agencies into the Department of Internal Affairs. 
The provisions contained in the legislation mark the next step in the Government’s drive to ensure that its administrative arrangements are organised to deliver improved services at reduced cost in the short to medium term and to future-proof the delivery of Government responsibility and services for the long term. Collectively these and other changes add up to a commitment by the Government not to impose a one-size-fits-all approach or a blunt chop of significant numbers of Government agencies but to consider each sector on its own and to put in place administrative arrangements that are best suited for the sector. 
This bill combines the capabilities of the Ministry of Research Science and Technology and the Foundation for Research Science and Technology into a new department that will clearly leave the sector with a unified strategic policy direction with more clarity and certainty around agency responsibilities and with reduced complexity and transaction costs across the system. The Public Records Amendment Bill (No 2) and the National Library of New Zealand (Te PunaMatauranga o Aotearoa) Amendment Bill will provide a simpler and more effective governance approach for gathering information protecting information and providing access to records and information that are vital to individual New Zealanders communities the Government of the day and Parliament. Bringing together the National Library Archives New Zealand and the Department of Internal Affairs will provide for better integrated decision-making and enable staff to draw on wider pools of expertise within a much larger corporate environment with reduced collaboration costs and lower corporate overheads. 
As the Hon Nathan Guy said all three of those agencies are embarking on or are some way down the track of a massive digitalisation of their collections and information. It makes a lot of sense to minimise and mitigate the risk of the future in that respect by bringing those three agencies together. It is actually a 21st century approach to Archives New Zealand and the National Library rather than some sort of quaint reminiscence of what it used to be like in the 1970s when trucks arrived from the National Library to give a few books to the schools. 
In summary these bills form the foundation of a better more integrated and more efficient administration of the Government’s role in research science and technology and for the gathering protection and development of some of New Zealand’s most important records knowledge and information resources. The Government welcomes the enactment of these bills. I think very importantly that the passing of these bills under urgency gives greater certainty to the staff who are involved that the various agencies will be in a position to meet the 1 February time line for the beginning of these new agencies.