Beaumont Carol: Inquiries Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Beaumont Carol: Inquiries Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 July 2009. Volume:656;Page:5216. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. I rise to support the Inquiries Bill. As others have said this bill is about modernising a very important process in our system—the inquiry process. I will start by acknowledging the Hon Rick Barker and by noting that this legislation is yet another piece of work undertaken by the previous Labour Government. 
I want to look at some of the aspects of the bill. First of all the bill establishes two new types of inquiry: public and Government inquiries. Public inquiries would be appointed by the Governor-General to inquire into matters of significant public importance. Government inquiries would be appointed by and would report directly to a Minister and would be used for smaller and more immediate issues. The bill also reforms and modernises the inquiry law and as others have mentioned follows the Law Commission review. That review recommended replacing royal commissions but the bill ensures that they are retained under the new law. The bill sets out criteria for public access to inquiries and their documentation. It provides for funding for legal representation for those participating in inquiries if this is warranted and provides a range of sanctions to improve the ability to control behaviour surrounding inquiries and to avoid abuses of their process. 
As a number of people have commented the Law Commission report  
A New Inquiries Act 
 identified three broad problems with the existing inquiry structure. First of all the current Commissions of Inquiry Act 1908 is antiquated and has been amended many times sometimes in response to one-off situations. Some provisions in there are quite confusing. The view was that a thorough re-examination was needed. The report also noted that royal commissions and commissions of inquiry are very costly with legalistic procedures. Thirdly it was noted that there has been an increasing preference for non-statutory ministerial inquiries but those currently take place outside of a statutory framework. 
The Law Commission proposed a number of new provisions for a new inquiries Act and I want to talk a little more about them. One of the things noted in this whole process was the importance of inquiries. I think it is worth noting why they are important. Inquiries play a key role in our democratic system. They provide an independent response to matters of public importance that cannot be adequately dealt with by permanent investigatory or statutory bodies. They can be essential tools for reassuring and obtaining public confidence. I think that is really important. They provide a sense of accountability find out what happened and develop new policy proposals. The fact that by nature they are one-off means that they can be adapted to suit unique issues by way of the terms of reference the composition the budget and so on. 
I think the debate about royal commissions was a very interesting one because the Law Commission itself felt that royal commissions should go. It concluded that they were adding an unnecessary complexity to the inquiry landscape. The alternative view and the one that prevailed was that the new Act should apply to royal commissions in a similar way to the 1908 Act. As has already been mentioned a royal commission is seen to give added gravitas. One of the purposes of inquiries—as I have just said—is to assure the public that the matter is being given serious and independent consideration. Probably there are situations where only the appointment of a royal commission will provide that assurance. 
Other speakers have mentioned some royal commissions that have taken place and it was an interesting process looking through them. I thought I might add a few to the debate as well. The 1966 Royal Commission on Workers’ Compensation undertaken by Justice Woodhouse was a very important one. I hope it will not be undermined over the course of this term of a National Government. We will wait and see. 
The 1975 Royal Commission to Inquire into and Report upon Contraception Sterilisation and Abortion was another very significant inquiry in New Zealand’s history. I think Ms Upston has already mentioned that in 1980 there was the Royal Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Crash on Mount Erebus Antarctica which is one that I know many people in this House will remember. They will remember that tragedy. That same year there was the Royal Commission to Inquire into and Report upon the Circumstances of the Convictions of Arthur Allan Thomas for the Murders of David Harvey Crewe and Jeanette Lenore Crewe. 
The 1985 Royal Commission on the Electoral System ended up being very important and it created the system we now have. Most recently as my colleagues Chris Hipkins and Darien Fenton previously talked about there was the 2007 Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. It is very interesting to look at some of those royal commissions and I think probably all members in the House can recall how significant those royal commissions have been in our history. 
We are in the middle of seeing what happens as a result of the Royal Commission on Auckland Governance. I would be remiss not to reinforce the fact that as others have mentioned that royal commission did a great deal of work over 18 months and much of it was overturned over a week by the Government. We are now in the process of seeing what the Government will make of the very very important issue of what governance in Auckland should look like. 
My colleagues have talked about areas requiring inquiry and I thought I might add one because I feel very strongly that there is an issue that we should be inquiring into immediately. It is the complete and utter disservice that has been done to New Zealand and our people by the Government’s lack of action on lifelong learning and skills development. I will talk about the need for an inquiry in that area. 
This afternoon the Prime Minister made various statements in this House about his platform to work with unions and business. He talked about his supposed desire to make New Zealand more productive. Well that is all very interesting but there is a complete lack of action to really reinforce that. I am thinking particularly of some very very sad things going on at the moment in the area of adult education. Let me talk to members about one project called Learning Representatives. It was endorsed by business and supported by Government. It was run by the union movement. It involved the creation of elected worker representatives in an enterprise to play a leadership role in encouraging workplace learning. Those people would be trained in that role that would make sure that their colleagues were aware of training opportunities looking at possible career paths ahead of them and dealing with literacy and numeracy problems. They would make sure that the workplace had a lifelong learning culture. That sounds like something that might be in the area of the Prime Minister’s interest in working with unions and business. It might be something in the area of his interest in making us all a bit more productive. It all certainly sounds pretty good. But what did we see in the Budget? We saw that its funding had been slashed. Funding for that programme—a very very constructive programme—was slashed so it will not be nearly as successful as it might have been. 
Talking about slashing successful initiatives in the learning and skills area let me mention the issue of adult learning. This surely should be the subject of an inquiry. It seems to me that something as cost-effective as adult and community education something that makes such a huge difference in people’s lives and something that gives adults the opportunity to engage with learning in order to develop new skills in areas that are really central to our economy should be the subject of an inquiry. 
I have here the programme for the adult learning centre at Onehunga High School and One Tree Hill College. What are the areas we are looking at? Business and careers computing English literacy and numeracy languages self care and personal development. There are arts and crafts and various other things but those are the big-ticket items.