Hughes Darren: Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hughes Darren: Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:647;Page:16112] 
Hon DARREN HUGHES (Deputy Leader of the House) 
: 
 I rise to support the first reading of the Parliamentary Service Amendment Bill and I follow on from the comments from the Leader of the House and the shadow Leader of the House who have set out what an important bill this is for several reasons of the practicality of running our Parliament. It is clearly needed to enable the Parliamentary Service to maintain its longstanding practice of giving administrative and support services to candidates who are to become members of Parliament either because they have gone into the general election as a member of Parliament or because of their candidacy being successful either in a constituency seat or by way of a party list based on the support that their party received in the general election. 
If we do not pass this legislation we do face the risk of there being a number of adverse effects which I do not think serve any political party member of Parliament or most important member of the public well. It would put at risk a whole range of services that MPs are able to deliver to their constituents which is not a beneficial outcome at all. 
Without this bill there will be issues about the ability of the Parliamentary Service to continue funding electorate offices for example. That would mean completely unnecessary costs would be incurred as things like leases for electorate offices are broken only to be re-established once the formal declaration has been announced and also in relation to things like power bills and telephone bills. I think it is worth mentioning those; as Mr Brownlee indicated these are very practical matters. It is not about feathering any nests but power bills need to be paid rents need to be paid and most important the salaries of those who support members of Parliament in electorate offices and out-of-Parliament offices need to be addressed. 
There is one other point that I think is important from a fairness point of view and it relates to the state of political parties during coalition negotiations following a general election. This legislation impacts on members of Parliament not on Ministers. The arrangements for supporting Ministers are of course made by Ministerial Services under the Department of Internal Affairs and Ministers act under warrants. That is why it is important to widen it out to all members of Parliament so that members who are elected at an election can continue to come to Wellington while those talks are continuing. The parties that are most benefited by this legislation are those that do not have Ministers within their ranks. 
The legal advice to the Parliamentary Service made it clear that it would not be able to continue its longstanding practice of providing support to those who would clearly be elected as members of Parliament following an election which would mean in effect that following an election Ministers would be able to be supported and MPs would not. Clearly that is not a tenable position and the Government is moving to address that. 
Dr Cullen indicated that he would be moving an instruction to the select committee for the bill to be reported back by 21 July. That is a very sensible approach because it will need to be passed in time for the formal processes to be completed and for Madam Speaker to issue her directions in accordance with it. Having the bill back in the House in late July means that we can realistically aim to pass it by early August at the latest. That will allow the process for the Speaker’s directions to be completed well in advance of the general election. 
This is a sensible bill. It is a practical bill for the operation of our Parliament and it is supported by parties across the House. There is a need to progress the bill expeditiously and I commend it to the House.