Mallard Trevor: Governor-General Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Mallard Trevor: Governor-General Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Volume:668;Page:14804] 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD (Labour—Hutt South) 
: 
 Continuing from my colleague I note the deep interest that the senior Minister in charge of the Governor-General Bill is paying to this debate and his reluctance so far to answer the specific questions that I have been listening to. I will add a series of questions. The first question relates to clause 11(2). I ask whether there is any similar arrangement for current Governors-General or the current Governor-General— 
Phil Twyford 
: Governors-General? 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: —no no we can have only one at a time—at a specific point in time and whether there is an obligation to set out in the financial statements of the Department of Internal Affairs the arrangements that have been made for a Governor-General while he or she is in office. I think that is an important issue and I hope the officials are writing a note for the Minister in the chair the Hon Phil Heatley in order for him to answer the question. 
If we are to have transparency in the arrangements for former Governors-General I ask whether we are to have transparency in the arrangements for the Governor-General at a specific time. My view is that until now it has been pretty easy to work out the arrangements for a Governor-General but this legislation appears to take away that area of transparency. It may be that under clause 10 someone can get some compensation for the period that he or she is Governor-General. I am looking in particular at clause 10(2) which indicates that the Minister of Finance and a person who is to be appointed as Governor-General can enter into what is effectively a remuneration contract especially the superannuation part of the remuneration arrangement for the Governor-General. Do we call the person the Governor-General designate? 
Grant Robertson 
: Yes. 
Hon TREVOR MALLARD 
: Except that person is not quite that because if the deal is not made then presumably the appointment would not be announced. But the proposed Governor-General and the Minister of Finance have to have a discussion. It is very clear in clause 11(2) that the result of that arrangement has to be made public. But under clause 10(2) I cannot see where there is an obligation to be transparent. Because people generally pick people who are nice people and whom they are close to there is always some danger of there being a sweetheart deal in this sort of arrangement. 
I think that the taxpayer would be well satisfied if there was transparency in this matter and maybe even one of my colleagues is prepared to scribble words on a bit of paper that would make it clear that there is to be transparency. Even if the answer is a matter of a nod or a wink from the Minister in the chair I ask whether the arrangements made under clause 10(2) of this legislation are to be made transparent. I am not getting any reaction at all from the Minister. I think it is an important question. 
Until the current time we have had transparency in the arrangements for Governors-General. Some of the arrangements that the Governor-General had in the past were a bit hidden away—the GST arrangements and in the old days the import duty arrangements—but I ask the Minister to react to this. Everyone agrees that this legislation is generally quite good but I think this aspect is an issue. I am not asking the Minister to lose the Government’s position by taking a call on this; all I am asking him to do is to indicate whether it is the intention of the Government to be transparent about the special superannuation arrangements.