Tisch Lindsay: Public Records Bill — First Reading 
Tisch Lindsay: Public Records Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:620;Page:15783] 
LINDSAY TISCH (National—Piako) 
: 
 National also will support this bill going to the select committee. The Minister responsible for Archives New Zealand identified the purposes and objectives of the bill and we have no difficulty with them. However we do have some concerns about the proposition that I will flag now and we will be looking closely at what submitters have to say when they have the opportunity to make their submissions. 
 The major issues that we contend need to be looked at more closely include the Treaty of Waitangi clause which specifically identifies what are treaty issues rather than normal forms of the wording. We will have to pursue that further. The second point is the interface between official information and public records under the Official Information Act. It is not an offence to destroy official information yet the definitions of “official information” and “public record” seem to overlap. 
So there are some concerns. I note the Minister is still in the House. Those two areas are of concern to us but I also note the work that was done way back in the earlier days when submissions took place in 2000 and 2001. I have here the submissions on the draft discussion paper on the proposed bill. They date back to June 2001. A number of issues were raised at that time. I will not ask the Minister about them now because I know the time will come during the select committee stage and the Committee of the whole House. 
I want to flag that a number of issues and concerns were expressed. Submitters were concerned that not enough time was spent in going through this. The No. 1 concern was that the process leading to the development and circulation of the draft discussion paper did not permit sufficient time for stakeholders to fully debate the issues raised. The ad hoc committee was convened to debate the proposition that was ultimately circulated. The result posed more questions than it answered. It is a very telling point that the result posed more questions than it answered and was short on firm proposals. 
 So I now flag to the Minister and officials that there are a number of questions we will want answers to. During the select committee stage an organisation like the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand will hopefully be a submitter along with others. I have a list of those who made proposals to the draft proposition. 
I am also specifically concerned about the carry-through into the bill from the existing legislation the Archives Act. Specifically I am looking at section 16(2) of the Act which requires the preparation of schedules of classes of public archives that are considered to be suitable for destruction and section 16(1) which permits the Chief Archivist to authorise the immediate destruction of any specified classes of public archives. That is an area that along with section 17—in particular section 17(2)—requires lists to be prepared of specified public archives or classes of public archives that are not worth permanent preservation. 
At this stage National is happy to support this bill through to a select committee. I know there are some technical issues that will need to be worked through and we will deal with those at the select committee. 
Bill read a first time and referred to theGovernment Administration Committee.referred to Government Administration Committee