Peters Winston: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11219. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):One of the National Party’s major election promises was “better public services”. It was going to be a top priority and this is it—4½ years later this is the sum of all its effort. Apparently what is going wrong with the country economically and socially is all to do with New Zealand’s Civil Service. Here is 176 pages of technocratic jargon and bureaucratic speak with a few legalistic niceties thrown in for good measure and I was certain the MP for the Wairarapa with his experience would have picked this up because he is a man of the world. He has been around. He has heard this sort of mumbo-jumbo before. I thought that if there was one man in the National Party team who would pick this up it is Mr Hayes. Usually he is as sharp as a tack and he shows courage. There is nothing in this State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill that would deliver any tangible benefit to the Kiwi mums and dads whom National claims to represent.What does the bill propose to do? Well it is going to establish departmental agencies within existing Government departments each with its own chief executive officer. It is all there in Part 1 clause 17 and new sections 27A and 27B amending the State Sector Act. Mr Hayes surely must have been alarmed when he saw that. The National Party’s approach to better public services is more Government departments and more chief executives. Oh yes it is. It is all here. There are already 35 Government departments and each has its own chief executive officer earning on average between $457000 and $470000 a year. Do you hear that? There are 35 Government departments already and each has its own chief executive officer earning between $457000 and $470000 a year or 10 times the average annual income. What is National doing? It is hiring more of them. That is what the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill means in practice and it is all here in black and white in Part 1 clause 28 amending section 35 of the principal Act. We have no idea how many new departmental agencies and departmental agency chief executives there will be but the intent is clear. New Zealand First firmly opposes the National Party’s attempts to hire more of its rich mates into cushy public sector jobs.David Bennett: Ha ha!Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Mr Bennett from Hamilton laughs but I will get to a quote shortly and he will not be laughing then. That is precisely what the National Party wants to do. The sad thing is that previously innocent but sometimes good people like Mr Bennett are being led by the nose being taken for a ride and having the wool pulled over their eyes.Here is the point. Section 2 allows for departments or departmental agencies to delegate Public Service functions or powers to contractors or individuals working in the private sector. It is all here in Part 1 clause 28 which amends section 35 of the State Sector Act. New Zealand First has serious reservations about the delegation of Public Service functions and powers to individuals working in the private sector. How does that work? Who is going to surveil them? Mr Bennett when he is at the select committee. Do you feel safe now? Do you feel safe that Mr Bennett is going to besurveilling these people making sure he keeps an eye on them—these private individuals with public contracts with the taxpayer? Amazing really. We question the efficacy and appropriateness of such outsourcing. We are yet to see any evidence that this will result in more savings and better public service outcomes.This bill threatens to overturn the longstanding constitutional convention of Civil Service impartiality by exempting public servants working in a Minister’s office. Any public servant in a Minister’s office now is exempt from the issue of Civil Service impartiality. They are not political appointments or they should not be from the requirement that selection must be based on merit. How do you like that? So now no longer do we have a constitutional convention of selection on merit. You get them exempt from these provisions of the old legislation. Such a provision leaves the door wide open to cronyism within the State sector and New Zealand First holds grave concerns about the politicisation of the Public Service.Here is the point Mr Bennett Mr Hayes Maggie Barry and all those people who so clearly are resigned to giving away their loyalty on such an important matter. It is with interest that we note a recent National Party strategy paper leaked to the media that called for “a pool of fiscal conservative bureaucrats who will work with politicians to implement policy.” It is all laid out: “a pool of fiscal conservative bureaucrats who will work with politicians to implement policy.” Crikey they have already got Treasury. They have already got Treasury but they are not happy with that. It is unbelievable.John Hayes: Could you table that report please. Table it.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: They go on further. Do you want me to table the National Party strategy? Look Mr Hayes go beyond the veil of your caucus and demand as a hard-working provincial MP who is about to be taken for a ride again to see the paper. They go on to say in the National Party strategy paper that reform is “necessary to ensure policy is implemented by bureaucrats rather than blocked by them.” It is unbelievable—naked plain clear as daylight. In other words they want to stack the Civil Service with their mates and these reforms will give them the capacity to do so. The rest of the bill of course totally sidesteps the real issues. New Zealand First remains firmly of the view that there is nothing in this bill that will result in any tangible benefit to ordinary New Zealanders. National wants to stack the Civil Service with its mates. These reforms give it the ability to do so. Removing the requirement for ministerial appointments to be impartial overturns centuries of Westminster tradition and must not be tolerated in a modern democratic nation. It is down to that.Mr Bennett and Mr Hayes here are some issues: Novopay fraud in the Canterbury rebuild Pike River theRena disaster Cave Creek the LAVIII 105 vehicle blowout from $170 million to a billion dollars and the INCIS computerisation scandal. Tell me. Those are just a few notable cases. What in this bill is going to stop that?Denis O’Rourke: Nothing.Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS: Nothing. So stop blaming everybody but yourselves for your economic incompetence for your inability to run a sound economy. Since 2007 the GDP per capita of this country has moved by 0.7 percent. It is standing still; utterly standing still. Since that time of course in the recovery we have had 1 percent of the population pick up about 120 percent of the recovery. The other 99 percent have gone down 0.04 percent; picked up nothing. It is unbelievable. Again of those disasters which one would be solved by this legislation? The answer is none. Mr Bennett is speaking next. I want him to tell the people of Hamilton why he will not do his duty by his country instead of acting as sycophantic cannon fodder for the National Party.