Little AndrewINSPECTOR-GENERAL OF DEFENCE BILLSecond ReadingHon ANDREW LITTLE (Minister of Defence): I present a legislative statement on the Inspector-General of Defence Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon ANDREW LITTLE: I move That the Inspector-General of Defence Bill be now read a second time.First I want to acknowledge the work and the deliberations of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee on the bill. The committee has produced a report recommending a number of changes to the bill and many of those changes I think are worthy and I endorse them. I believe that the changes the committee has recommended will only serve to enhance the transparency and integrity of the office of the Inspector-General of Defence once it is established and I will come to some of those changes and some that I don't agree with.I'll delve into as I say those changes but I want to outline now why the bill is so important to this Government. This Government is committed to implementing the recommendations made by the inquiry into Operation Burnham which concluded in 2020 and included the recommendation to establish an independent Inspector-General of Defence. The establishment of that office goes to the heart of two fundamental requirements in a democracy such as ours and that is that there is civilian control of the military and that there is a ministerial accountability to Parliament for the military. These are important tenets of freedom and democracy in our society and which we as parliamentarians must work hard to uphold.The inquiry into Operation Burnham undertaken by Sir Terence Arnold and Sir Geoffrey Palmer found that the actions of the NZSAS in 2010 and 2011 in Afghanistan were professional and lawful but that there were shortcomings in the way that the New Zealand Defence Force subsequently provided information to Ministers and adequately scrutinised or responded to information. I believe the establishment of an Inspector-General of Defence will not only strengthen public confidence in the New Zealand Defence Force but will also support New Zealand's international reputation by providing assurance that the Defence Force activities are subject to independent and dedicated scrutiny. Members will recall the background to the Operation Burnham inquiry. A number of soldiers on deployment were concerned about some of their tasking but had nowhere to take their concerns. Ultimately their concerns were outlined in a book by investigative journalists Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson and it soon became apparent that the Minister of Defence at the time—a National Minister of Defence Dr Wayne Mapp—had not been kept properly informed. Coming back to the Inspector-General of Defence: once appointed by the Governor-General following a recommendation from this House the Inspector-General of Defence will be an independent statutory officer for a five-year term. The inspector-general will be supported by a deputy who will be appointed for an initial three-year term. The inspector-general's office will have the power to investigate any activity or matter related to the New Zealand Defence Force activities which the inspector-general can launch on their own initiative or following a referral from the Minister of Defence the Secretary of Defence or Chief of Defence Force.I believe that this ability to investigate any issue at any time will reassure New Zealanders that they can continue to place their trust in the integrity of our Defence Force personnel. It will help me as Minister of Defence and my successors facilitate democratic and civilian oversight of the Defence Force and will strengthen the accountability and transparency of the military and increase public confidence when investigations are launched that review its actions. This is an office that will be able to examine inspect and assess to scrutinise and respond to look across systems and process and to ask hard questions. The return of this bill to the House today is significant. New Zealand is one step closer to the establishment of the Inspector-General of Defence following the robust review of the bill conducted by the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. The committee accepted 13 written submissions and five oral submissions and I'm confident the committee gave very careful consideration to all of them. Many of the submitters made helpful suggestions to the committee and I thank those submitters for the contributions they've made.I want to also particularly acknowledge Sir Kenneth Keith former Supreme Court judge who was appointed by the committee to provide independent specialist advice. His advice reassured the committee and should also reassure New Zealanders that there's been an independent eye cast over this bill.There are a number of recommendations for change made by the committee that I'd like to acknowledge today—the first and perhaps most significant being their recommendation to enable the inspector-general to examine all the Defence Force activities on its initiative. As mentioned earlier the Inspector-General of Defence will have the power to look into any activity undertaken by Defence Force personnel except the activities of Veterans' Affairs New Zealand. This means the inspector-general is free to choose the subject of the investigations or assessments it conducts. The office will have the discretion to act on information it receives from any person organisation or whistleblower within the Defence Force or outside of it. The inspector-general's office could choose to examine for example incidents on deployments as well as wider matters including the Defence Force's training or its workplace culture or a policy or procedure that governs its activities. The broad scope of the inquiry provides an important avenue of scrutiny for not only members of the public but also for service personnel themselves. Wide powers to investigate such as these are similar to the scope of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and I believe this will bring greater public confidence to the independence of the office. The committee also recommended a number of changes to the bill to reassure the public that the inspector-general is independent from both the Defence Force and Ministers of the Crown. As a result the bill no longer requires the inspector-general to accept the Minister of Defence's feedback on its annual work programme or to seek the Minister's permission before sharing an investigation or assessment report with relevant Ministers. I want to thank the committee for their work in this regard and I commend those changes to the House too.But I add this though: there is the question of who the responsible Minister should be. The bill doesn't say who the responsible Minister should be but the term Minister"—which is in the bill of course—for the purposes of any legislation is defined in the Legislation Act 2019 as basically the Minister made responsible for the administration of the legislation by the Prime Minister of the day. I put on record now that I do not expect the Minister of Defence to be the Minister responsible for the Inspector-General of Defence. It should be another Minister most likely the Minister of Justice.In a similar vein the committee recommended the bill strengthen the inspector-general's powers to gather information. The bill empowers the inspector-general to access all Defence records including Defence Force databases if they are considered relevant to its functions. The bill now also requires the Chief of Defence Force to notify the inspector-general of civilian deaths or injuries whether these occur in peacetime or in armed conflict and when it's likely the Defence Force has caused or contributed to civilian injury or death.Lastly I want to acknowledge and thank the committee and the submitters for other changes to the bill which enhance transparency and public confidence in the inspector-general's operations. The bill will allow the inspector-general to publish information on the Defence Force's progress implementing any recommendations it has made. It will also be compulsory for the office to publish a summary of its investigations or assessments where a full report is unable to be released in order to protect classified or sensitive information. It's important that the public again has confidence that the inspector-general is acting lawfully fairly and reasonably. These changes will allow for greater visibility.I have introduced a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) that will make three amendments to the bill as reported back to ensure there are sufficient protections for people and information. To a large extent they reinstate provisions that were in the original bill. These changes will firstly reinstate the Minister's ability to certify that protected information should not be disclosed. This is an important backstop to ensure that information is not released if it would endanger the safety of a person or prejudice the security of New Zealand.Secondly it reinstates the Inspector-General of Defence's partial exemption from the Official Information Act. This will apply to the working documents or internal records of the office. This will preserve the inspector-general's ability to seek and receive information in confidence during the course of an investigation or assessment.Thirdly the SOP will require the Inspector-General of Defence to hold investigations in private unless the inspector-general determines on a case by case basis to hold hearings in public. This is necessary to protect participants and to encourage full participation in investigations.These are responsible provisions that correctly balance the important powers of the Inspector-General of Defence and the need in this sensitive area of Government endeavour to preserve our national security and foreign relations interests. As members will recall this Government has worked to bring this bill to Parliament following the conclusion of the Operation Burnham inquiry. It's crucial that New Zealanders trust their military and their activities and this bill I'm sure will go a long way to doing that. It will go a long way to supporting the brave selfless dedicated individuals who make up the New Zealand Defence Force. It's critical they are supported to do their work and are able to get the right information at the right time so they can focus on the job at hand that is so often challenging. I commend the bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to."