Hayes John: Inquiries Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hayes John: Inquiries Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 July 2009. Volume:656;Page:5207. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 We have just heard 10 minutes of drivel. Maybe we could have an inquiry into why it is possible for this Parliament to be held up by such a lot of absolute arrant nonsense. I point out to the member who has just resumed his seat Chris Hipkins the motto of the New York Yacht Club is that youth and enthusiasm will always be outfoxed by old age and treachery. 
Let us have some inquiries. Let the first inquiry be into why that member’s Government last year paid $200 million more than it should have for KiwiRail. Let us have an inquiry into why we bought a lease of St James Station for $40 million when it was valued at less than $15 million. When we buy a lease we buy only the value of the improvements on the property. The State already owned it. That was outrageous and there should be an inquiry about it. We could have another inquiry into why we found a black hole of $200 million in the budget of the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) following Labour’s stewardship. What about the mum and dad investors who lost heaps of money because of the way you managed Auckland Airport? If you want some inquiries— 
Chris Hipkins 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: I know what the member is going to say. I just remind members that they cannot bring the Chair into the debate so “yours” and “your” and “you” are out of order. 
JOHN HAYES 
: That member who spoke previously could face quite a number of inquiries. 
Let us come back to the purpose of the Inquiries Bill. The intent of this bill is to modernise and reform the law while providing for flexible effective efficient and fair inquiries. We need to do that because the legislation has been in place since 1908. The previous Government had 9 years to change this legislation and it did nothing. The current law that governs these inquiries is the Commissions of Inquiry Act 1908. 
In 2006 the Law Commission—and it always does a good job—was invited to review the law relating to public inquiries. The review focused on commissions of inquiry as well as royal commissions and non-statutory ministerial inquiries. The report that the commission produced which people listening to this debate can find at www.lawcom.govt.nz identified quite a number of problems with the 1908 Act. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Come on spice it up a bit. 
JOHN HAYES 
: First of all like that member’s hair it is over 100 years old. Some parts of the Act are seen as antiquated and some provisions are outdated. The amendments made over time have generally been in response to circumstances of a particular inquiry. This means they may resolve a very specific part of the existing Act without taking the whole context into account. 
Other problems identified included the cost and duration of commissions of inquiry and royal commissions normally assigned to the legalistic process those commissions often adopt. This resulted in very high costs and long delays in getting work completed. There was also a lack of a flexible statutory inquiry for Ministers. For example a flexible inquiry might have been made into former Labour MP Taito Phillip Field and his actions in the immigration area. Inquiries appointed outside the statutory framework lack the powers of protection of those appointed within the statutory framework. 
This bill is designed to replace for the most part the 1908 Act. There will be two types of inquiry. We will retain the royal commission and there will also be public inquiries. These will be appointed by the Governor-General on major issues of concern to the public or the Government and they will be a substitute for the commissions of inquiry. The reports from public inquiries will be tabled in Parliament. The bill also provides for Government inquiries. These will be appointed by and report directly to Ministers. They will deal with smaller and more immediate issues where a quick and authoritative response is required. The Law Commission also recommended that the ability to appoint royal commissions should be removed but the previous Government decided to retain them as the public views them as very important where matters of significant public interest are involved. All the provisions of the public inquiry will apply to royal commissions. 
Other provisions will include an express power for inquiries to be postponed or suspended where an investigation into circumstances may be undertaken or where the inquiry may prejudice the investigation of interested parties. It will also provide improved powers for obtaining evidence and information for the inquiry and it will allow a maximum fine of $10000 if a document order or information is refused to be given to the inquiry. The legislation will also formalise the role of the Department of Internal Affairs in administering all types of inquiries. 
With those words I thoroughly support this legislation and commend the Minister for his actions in promoting it here in this House.