Heatley Phil: State Sector Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
Heatley Phil: State Sector Amendment Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee 
[Volume:610;Page:7287] 
PHIL HEATLEY (NZ National—Whangarei) 
: 
 My colleague Lindsay Tisch gave us a number of titles that the Minister and this Government could have chosen to put on this bill in order to better reflect its contents and to better reflect the mischief in the bill that will affect New Zealanders whether or not they know it. 
However of the smorgasbord of choices that my colleague Lindsay Tisch gave to this Committee I would like to support—and I certainly stand to support—his first one the “State Sector (Disempowerment) Amendment Bill”. That is what this bill does. It disempowers the State sector and certainly empowers those on the executive in this Government. In fact it gives the Government so much power and this Parliament so little power that that should raise the concern of every member of Parliament. 
The aims of this bill are to allow the making of Orders in Council that will amend the first schedule of the State Sector Act in order to change or amend the names of departments in the schedule. With the passage of this bill by Order in Council the executive can change the names of departments. But it can also deal with redundancy situations that arise when functions are transferred between Government departments. So one can lay off someone without any accountability. That is why the “State Sector (Disempowerment) Amendment Bill” would be a better title for this bill than the present title. 
I have a question for Mr Rodney Hide who should be concerned about this bill. I have a question for ACT members and New Zealand First members about this bill and I raise this with them. Why is it that this Government decreases the red tape that it has to cut through when it wants to make a change lay off governmental staff change the name of Government departments or do whatever it does best which is generally to grow the bureaucracy? Why is it that the Government is cutting the red tape for itself but is always increasing the red tape for everyone else? Why is it that through this bill—and I am calling it the “State Sector (Disempowerment) Amendment Bill”—the Government is cutting the red tape that it has to face yet through every other piece of legislation that it forces through this Parliament it is increasing the red tape and bureaucracy required for businesses just to make their way every day and increasing the red tape for every citizen in New Zealand? That is why I think the “State Sector (Disempowerment) Amendment Bill” is a better title for this legislation. 
I challenge the Minister in the chair the Hon Mark Burton to tell us why he has hidden from the title any indication that he as a member of the executive is now able to deal with redundancy situations within Government departments simply by transferring responsibilities between those very departments. Even by changing the names of departments he can deal with redundancies whereas other businesses that employ New Zealanders in this country in going through the same situation—laying off staff and so forth—will have to jump through a myriad of hoops. 
This bill also takes the generic changes and applies them to the merger of the Department of Work and Income and the Department of Social Welfare—to be called the “Massive Ministry of Social Development”. That is what this bill does. If there are any redundancies arising from that this Minister through this bill will not be accountable for that. If people are laid off he will not be responsible in terms of any legislation that goes through the House. No member of Parliament will have a say on that. We will not be able to scrutinise the situation at all. Who will decide? It will simply be the Minister and the executive by Order in Council and I am concerned about that. 
Certainly if this bill is passed no Government in the future will have to come to the House as they have normally done to undergo the scrutiny they have normally had to. Future Governments will be able to do a “Helen Clark.” They will be able to avoid this House completely and not front up at all. Ministers could go overseas and just have a regulation to merge departments and lay people off without even fronting up to this House.