Wall Louisa: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11660. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa):Kia ora. E ngā mana e ngā reo rau rangatira mā tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā koutou katoa. Ngā mihi ki ngā kaimahi o te Whare Pāremata tēnā tātou.[Thank you. To the authorities languages and leaders of a hundredfold greetings salutations and acknowledgments to you all. Greetings to the workers of Parliament House and to us collectively. ]It is my pleasure to take a call on Part 2 of the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill. I particularly want to commend the Minister of State Services for trying I think to make a better Public Service which is the whole intention of this bill—trying to make a better Public Service that will achieve some objectives such as increasing participation in early childhood education increasing immunisation rates decreasing—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!LOUISA WALL: —rheumatic fever rates—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): No. Order! That is not part of Part 2 and I will ask the member to concentrate on Part 2. It is about the Public Finance Act. It is not about these other things.LOUISA WALL: It is about the Public Finance Act but it is also about establishing a new appropriation type which is multi-category appropriation. As a member of the Health Committee I am particularly thrilled about this multi-category appropriation. The Health Committee has before it an inquiry that is looking at improving child health outcomes—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!LOUISA WALL: —and preventing child abuse—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I will say to the member that we are on the Public Finance Act—LOUISA WALL: We are on Part 2.The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): We are on the Public Finance Act Part 2. I ask the member to concentrate on Part 2.LOUISA WALL: Thank you Mr Chair. What this part of the legislation is creating is this new multi-category appropriation which will allow different types of expenditure to be grouped into a single appropriation if they contribute to a single overarching purpose. I think that was the point that I was trying to make—that in fact there are a number of inquiries and some work that this Parliament is currently engaged in that this particular multi-category appropriation is relevant to. Hopefully with your discretion Mr Chair I am able to elaborate on the relevance of that within the current context.The whole Better Public Services agenda has been driven because we are wanting to achieve more for less and so I do want to commend the Government for creating opportunities for Ministers to work together. I mean that is essentially what this new appropriation type is going to allow. It will in fact break down silos. It will in fact provide opportunities for Ministers to start working together to address issues such as housing which is a fundamental driver of rheumatic fever. I have made the connection of the relevance of this piece of legislation with the Better Public Services agenda and from my perspective that is one of the reasons that the Labour Party is supporting this piece of legislation. We want an efficient and effective Public Service that meets the needs of New Zealanders and that particularly and specifically meets the needs of the most vulnerable New Zealanders. In supporting this particular aspect of this piece of legislation I think it is fair to also highlight my expectations and the expectations as the member of Parliament for the electorate of Manurewa that this type of appropriation has the possibility to—and is in fact going to—improve and transform the lives of my constituents.I would also like to take the opportunity to highlight within Part 2 of the bill the changing of the requirements for information about departments’ strategic intentions which includes the frequency of that provision. Essentially we are talking about statements of intent. Those statements of intent currently are an annual requirement of Crown entities and the purpose of those statements of intent is I think relevant to the Committee to note because they very much set the strategic directions of the ministries. They are set by the Minister and are obviously set by the Government so within that they are very specific about how the Government the sector and the entity will achieve certain outcomes. That is very much about setting the expectations and priorities. I think it is fair that all New Zealanders know what the priorities of Ministers are and what the priorities of chief executives are within that context. So the reason I bring it up and the relevance of that to this part of the legislation is that that requirement is going to be discretionary so Ministers will choose whether they—