Utikere Tangi; Brown SimeonTANGI UTIKERE (Labour—Palmerston North): Thank you Mr Chair. We haven't had a response from the Minister so there really is no other option for members on this side of the Chamber except to continue to put the—James Meager: Oh not another letter!TANGI UTIKERE: Well here we go. I mean members they love to pose the questions and really it's an opportunity to respond to them but the reality is this. We have posed questions to the Minister. He has yet to take a call. What members are seeking on this side of the Chamber is for him to simply address the issues that have been raised. My colleague Miss Williams has touched on some of the specifics around Crown entities. I've referred to what is cited in section 7 of the Crown Entities Act. All that's required is the Minister to simply get up and provide a response. It's the information that we're wanting over here.I want to just double back to something that was raised earlier and it is of relevance Mr Chair because it relates to the information that is currently before the committee in urgency to make decisions on whether we will support particular parts of this bill. I have yet to receive a response from the Minister in relation to the regulatory impact statement which has informed the decision-making capability capacity and ability of members of this House. It's important because it relates to page 6. Again we're waiting for a response from the Minister around referencing within that document. For your benefit Mr Chair it's page 6 and it says Error! Reference source not found." and then it goes on to provide some information.This is Budget sensitive information that is available to members of the House. We do expect on this side of the House that where there is information where it simply says there's an error it needs to be rectified. So we've asked the Minister what is the issue with that what is the nature of that and we're yet to receive a response. So I think it would be helpful even if he takes a call and says "Look we don't know.". Or maybe it's a formatting error—I don't know. But when it appears in a document that's tabled what's really important is that we need to understand that—the way in which this Act would seek to bind the Crown—and I don't think that there is any dispute around that. Where there is perhaps some unease and a little bit of a lack of information is to ensure that the other components where decisions may be taken or made that that still exists.So for example if we get through this process and actually the Minister suddenly sees the light and thinks "You know what? The policy objectives and outcomes of this particular piece of legislation are such that actually it shouldn't be fully within the Land Transport Act." It might be somewhere else if there is another entity that is formed at some point in the future that might be responsible for delivering on some of the policy outcomes and objectives of the Minister. I guess it could be argued that that could be amended at that point in time. But is the fact that this Act binds the Crown—does it fully cover the independent Crown entities the autonomous nature of other Crown entities and others? Those are questions that have been put to the Minister and we are yet to receive a response.The whole way that this works is that members should feel free to put questions to the Minister and the Standing Orders were changed to allow the Minister to respond to those questions and to those issues. So if the Minister continues to sit there and not actually address the questions that have been asked that is a very poor strategy I would suggest because it means that—and I've said this before—we're none the wiser and we have to keep asking the question.All the Minister needs to say is "Well actually no. I've addressed that question because of XYZ." or "I'm not sure of why there's an error." I mean he is free at any time to take some advice around this. But the responsibility is on all members of this committee to be asking questions in this space and the prime responsibility—Arena Williams: Yep 85.TANGI UTIKERE: What is the reference there Miss Williams?Arena Williams: Speakers' ruling 85.TANGI UTIKERE: Right. So that should help—is that we need to be engaging. But it's also actually a sole responsibility of the Minister in the chair to assist the committee through this process and to address the questions that have been put. And until that happens with this specific clause we'll continue to seek calls until the Minister provides a response.Hon SIMEON BROWN (Minister of Transport): Well Mr Chair I've been listening to the debate and the answers to all of those questions are that this is a clause that is inserted into legislation everywhere. It is an Act which binds the Crown; the Crown includes Crown entities. This is the exact same clause which is in the primary legislation that's been amended. And so whilst it's a very curious debate that the Opposition members are seeking to engage in the answer is incredibly clear. This is how parliamentary practice undertakes the amendment of legislation by putting a simple clause in which says: "This Act binds the Crown." That is exactly what it does."