King Colin: State Sector Management Bill — First Reading 
King Colin: State Sector Management Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:666;Page:13694] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on the State Sector Management Bill. I will start with the purpose of the bill. It is concerned with creating financial efficiencies effectiveness and the future viability of the agencies. We notice a little bit of a murmur and a squirm from members on the other side of the House but New Zealanders voted National into office to achieve gains in terms of efficiencies because all New Zealanders at this time are tightening their belts and working their way through the most difficult recession in 70 years. New Zealanders are applauding the work and the strategy of this Government. 
What grew out of the last 9 years of the Labour Government was a bloated bureaucracy lacking efficiency and cooperation. This Government is looking at a very systematic coordination in order to create efficiencies and I applaud the Government for doing that. The way the Government will achieve those efficiencies is fundamentally through greater collaboration and cooperation and combining those functions under the Department of Internal Affairs makes good sense. The National Library along with Archives New Zealand will come under the control of the Department of Internal Affairs. That move stands the test of what has been done with a number of other departments and organisations that are performing well. I take this opportunity to remind Opposition members that the AgriQuality and Asure organisations were amalgamated under the previous Labour Government and they are functioning very well. I am concerned that the thinking of Opposition members is back in the last century but we are living in a time when we need greater cooperation. 
Mechanisms are in place to ensure that digital strategies and suchlike can be tremendously advanced. I refer back to the National Digital Strategy the development of which was led by the National Library. There was an abundance of money sloshing around in Wellington and it took forever to achieve that strategy. The process was drawn out dysfunctional and disorderly. Given that the strategy was so low on the priority list of the previous Government it is quite a challenge to understand the substance of the arguments of Opposition members. 
This is an omnibus bill and it reminds us that the biggest business in town is the business of the State sector. Therefore it needs fine management. This bill will endeavour to meet that need and in doing so it also addresses the urgent need to reorganise the research science and technology sector. This Government in Budget 2010 directed an enormous amount of new money into that area. We realised that we had to restructure the fundamental structures of the Ministry of Research Science and Technology and the Foundation for Research Science and Technology. In order to do that we needed to move to a science and innovation model. It was an absolute pleasure to hear the Minister of Science Research and Technology talk about that issue in Marlborough the other day when he visited Cuddon Engineering. That company will potentially benefit enormously from the grants and supporting systems that the Government is offering. It is very very important that all the money that is wasted in backroom functions is transferred to a sector where it will make a difference. This bill will go a long way towards making that difference. 
We look forward to seeing this bill at the Education and Science Committee. The submission process will be positive and constructive. Opposition members support the research science and technology side of it but they have concerns about combining the functions of Archives New Zealand and the National Library under the Department of Internal Affairs. The select committee is very collegial and looks forward to debating those things. I am quite confident that if any tweaks are needed we can address those at the select committee and the bill can come back to the House as an even better bill. It is an outstanding bill and I look forward to the opportunity to have input at the committee. I commend the bill to the House.