Delahunty Catherine: Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 14 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7252. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare ko tēnei pō. I would like to congratulate the member who put this bill to the House and to disassociate myself from any of the disrespectful and patronising remarks that we have just heard about why the member wrote this. I think it is unnecessary to behave like that in this House. We have too much of it. It is actually important to talk about issues not attack people or disrespect people who get a member’s bill through. Member’s bills are actually quite an achievement they are quite a struggle to get selected from the biscuit tin and they also represent the sincere interests of many of us. Even if other people do not understand it we should at least show some respect.I think that it is a great pity that this bill will not go to a select committee because it would have been a chance to discuss the Official Information Act in relation to parliamentary under-secretaries’ roles. I am fully aware that Labour had parliamentary under-secretaries. The Greens had parliamentary under-secretaries under Labour as part of a coalition agreement. I think that it would be good to talk about making those positions accountable and making them absolutely clear and subject to the Official Information Act because anybody who has had the experience of trying to carry out their opportunities under the Official Information Act to the Minister of Education’s office will understand how frustrating the situation is around a particular issue.I think it is worth remembering that the parliamentary under-secretary gets paid more money. Often it is through a high-level political agreement—i.e. a coalition agreement—that that person gets power. They get a lot of opportunity to influence policy and to spend public money but we cannot ask them any questions. I think that is a shame especially since many of us are deeply frustrated and in fact are struggling to get answers out of the Minister of Education. I believe that the current Parliamentary Under-Secretary to the Minister of Education would probably be more frank which would be quite helpful. I would be interested in his often very frank remarks on these issues and I would like to hear from him on those subjects.So I think it is a shame that it is not going to go forward so that we can look at what it would mean. Would it really be such an undermining of the executive if the parliamentary under-secretaries were directly covered by the Official Information Act? One of the reasons that some of us are exercised about the Official Information Act is the parliamentary under-secretary role at the moment relating to information on charter schools because we have had an authorisation debacle and we have had a very interesting funding formula that is now being adjusted because so much money was put in per student that even the parliamentary under-secretary and the Minister know that it is wrong. So they are having to tweak the model but it would be much better if instead of the arduous and often frustrating struggle to get through to the official information—when half of it is redacted anyway—we could actually talk straight about what is going on why it is going on and how much money is being spent.As much as we pride ourselves on being such a developed country voting once every 3 years is not participatory democracy and we do need the mechanisms of Parliament that we have to be a lot more rigorously open and a lot more transparent. The public heavily rely on the Official Information Act as do the Opposition parties. Frustrating as it may seem to Government Ministers and their coalition partners we actually need those mechanisms so that we can hold the Government and the parliamentary under-secretary—whose policy has had a huge influence on the Government education strategies this term—to account and a lot of money has been spent.It would be great to be able to get straight answers. And so for many of us I appreciate the member’s bill because I know that what he is trying to achieve is some consistency across that idea of open and transparent and healthy democracy. So it was great to hear Sarah Dowie talk about the importance of the Official Information Act and how important it is to have transparency but then it is highly contradictory to turn round and say: “But not for this.” No this position—which actually accrues considerable funding and considerable policy influence and opportunity—will not be subject to the Act. So I think it is a special deal and if a person gets a special deal they need to be subject to the same challenges as the Ministers. I think that is an important part of the job.I would say to the current parliamentary under-secretary—I hate the expression “Harden up” and I hated it when he used it; I think it is a shame and a disgrace—if you want to be in a position of responsibility and influence not only should you be careful what you say about other human beings; you should also be careful about being accountable to the public. Kia ora tātou katoa.