Smith Nick; Hipkins ChrisHon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): My first question on Part 6 of this bill is in respect of the amendments to the Clerk of the House of Representatives Act 1988. These are significantly different to what was in the bill and amended by the Minister's Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 549. My question for the Minister in the chair is: what is the practical effect of the new provisions that he has added? Just to be really clear about my question—we became familiar with what Part 6 of the bill did in amending the Clerk of the House Act in respect of the bill as introduced. Those provisions have now changed. What I'd like is a practical explanation of the SOP and how it changes the Clerk of the House of Representatives Act 1988 with these amendments that we've only had for 24 hours.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of State Services): It has the same effect as the ones that we debated earlier which is to remove the Officers of Parliament and the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk from any coverage of the Public Service legislation.Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): My question is that if indeed that were correct that this amended Act would make absolutely no change to the Clerk of the House of Representatives Act then we would be making no amendments to the Clerk—that was that we'd completely do that. Now I accept we need to amend the original bill but the key provision I want an answer to is: what changes are we making to the Clerk of the House because it's quite clear from this part of the bill that we are still making some changes to the Clerk of the House Act and could he clarify that?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of State Services): The reason for that is under the State Sector Act there are some provisions currently that the Clerk has to follow—that the Office of the Clerk are covered by in the State Sector Act. As we remove those we can't leave a void. So the insertion into the legislation covering the Clerk of the House of Representatives is to ensure that we're not creating a legislative hole where there are no provisions. So it's as we remove the Office of the Clerk from being covered by what was the State Sector Act soon to be the Public Service Act we're not creating a hole. So we're inserting an equivalent provision so that they're covered into the legislation that affects them. It basically means that the commission is no longer involved that the Clerk themselves conducts—this clause specifically relates to negotiations with unions. The public commissioner no longer has any involvement in that. It's very clear that that's conducted completely independently by the Clerk.Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): So again just to get clarity from the Minister when the staff of the Clerk of the House of Representatives sit down to negotiate their terms of employment what changes as a consequence of the passage of this law? We knew that under the original bill as introduced there was an inappropriate intrusion through this Public Service Legislation Bill. We've pulled that back and National members welcome that but I still just ask the practical question and that is: as a consequence—and again we have only seen these changes 24 hours ago. I just simply want the clarity as to what's the practical effect for the Clerk of the House of these amendments. If there was no impact at all we would see there being no amendments at all to the Clerk of the House. What is the practical effect of these four clauses that amend the Clerk of the House Act?Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of State Services): Well I just answered that for the member if he'd listened to my answer. By removing the Clerk from having any coverage by the Public Service Commissioner it creates a legislative hole that needs to be filled. So that legislative hole is filled by inserting these provisions into the legislation that covers the Clerk.Hon Dr NICK SMITH (National—Nelson): Well I'm sorry Minister that is not what we have before us. What we have is that these provisions are repealed. So what we have in the provision of new clauses 106B 106C and 106C(2) is the addition of the words after consultation with the State Services Commission". But the Minister's explanation that we're adding a new function to the role of the Clerk of the House of Representatives cannot be correct because there is no new function added. All we are doing is repealing particular sections. So can the Minister clarify when he says that there are additional functions for the Clerk of the House where are those in the bill? I cannot see them."