Wong Pansy: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
Wong Pansy: Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:611;Page:8155] 
PANSY WONG (NZ National) 
: 
 I agreed with the Hon Richard Prebble who spoke just before dinner. He must have touched a raw nerve with the Minister so I will try to follow through the theme of what he was trying to say. The Minister of Health became very very excited at that point. She stood up and she wants to do so again. We want to encourage the Minister to get to her feet. 
Before dinner the Minister said that making appointments for reasons of political patronage was the furthest thing from her mind. So I thought I would do some research on appointments. We have researched a little into what this Labour Government has achieved. We cannot quite see into the future but I certainly think the past is a good indication of the Labour Government’s performance in this area. The  
Dominion Post 
—Wellington City’s authoritative newspaper—has an article stating that more than 3000 people serve on some 400 quangos funded from the public purse and up to 900 appointments a year are made without public advertisements. What do we have? Let us look at some of those appointments.  
Can members guess the former profession of Chief Human Rights Commissioner Ros Noonan? She was previously a trade union official and she has also recently been appointed by Labour to a new task force. Wow! There is more. Former Labour Cabinet Minister David Caygill who has earned over $100000 from chairing an inquiry into the electricity industry also picks up $50000 a year for chairing the Accident Compensation Corporation. He is considered a front-runner to head the new 7-member Electricity Commission after failing to get the last one off the ground. I see the Minister is getting excited; I am sure she will take a call. A left-leaning former Race Relations Commissioner Gregory Fortuin earns $55000 a year as a New Zealand Post board member.  
Let us look at some more appointments. 
Jill Pettis 
: Relevance. 
PANSY WONG 
: The Minister tried to say Labour would not appoint former party members to positions. How about former Prime Minister David Lange and former Labour MP Jenny Kirk? I am telling members about all the quangos that are staffed by those people—former Labour MPs Jenny Kirk Stan Rodger Jill White Ann Hercus; the list goes on and on. 
Apparently in 2001 Treasury recommended that the process governing political appointments be put into a law in order to give it more force and that appointments be done more openly. Treasury put up that paper to the Government. Can members guess what the response of the Labour Government was? The Labour Government said that it had no plans to adopt Treasury’s recommendation. It would not have a bar of it. 
Now we have this legislation before us which once again gives the Minister plenty of opportunities to reward people and to appoint people who agree with her positions. The Minister is most welcome to stand up and take a call and to try to reassure us as to why the public and the Opposition parties should have confidence the Minister will not exercise her discretion and appoint people whom she favours. 
I do want to pick up another issue that is very dear to my heart. Members who are appointed must be culturally competent. 
John Carter 
: Like my mother. 
PANSY WONG 
: Oh John Carter’s mother. I am sure she is a very cultured woman as far as I know. I wonder how the Minister will satisfy the requirements of a lady of such high standing. But I wonder whether all the different cultures would be included under that term.