Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 27 May 2014. Volume:699;Page:18308. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) to theMinister responsible forNovopay: Does he stand by his statement with regards toNovopay “I want to see within three months a situation where as much as possible workloads from administrators are back to where they were before this thing started”; if so when did he make that statement?Hon STEVEN JOYCE (Minister responsible forNovopay): Yes. I can advise the member that the most recent pay period reports show complaints and notifications for pay periods two three and four this year were at 0.09 percent 0.11 percent and 0.18 percent respectively. With the exception of issues that arose for the three start-of-year pay periods this year all pay periods since the time I made that statement have been below the 0.5 percent steady-state level identified by theNovopay technical review and that statement was made in March of last year.Chris Hipkins: Is he satisfied that the workload of school administrators is back to where it was given that over a year after he made that statement over 1250 schools still had outstanding backlog issues and almost 2000 schools were reporting that they were still experiencing problems; if so why?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well I am not sure where the member is getting that particular piece of information from but the reality is actually that the numbers are considerably lower than that from pay period to pay period. There are historic things that are being still resolved as there have been for many years including the previous system which the member recommended be replaced to the Minister at the time because it had too many issues with it.Chris Hipkins: For the Minister’s help I seek leave to table the Weekly Backlog Clearance Unit Report from the Ministry of Education to the Minister from 7 February.Mr SPEAKER: I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular document. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Chris Hipkins: Supplementary question? [Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! I am just waiting.Chris Hipkins: Is he satisfied that a year after he made that statementNovopay still had over $9.3 million in debts outstanding to recover and it was still making errors that resulted in hundreds of thousands of dollars of new debt being created; if so why?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The member needs to be clear that the total amount of outstanding debt originally was $18 million and actually about $10 million of that has been collected. Yes there is still debt to be collected. That relies of course on people paying that money back which they are doing over a period of time. In fact both thissystem and the previous system create debt through overpayments that need to be repaid. In fact this system inherited a number from the previous system—Andrew Little: Oh rubbish! What rubbish!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Well actually it is true which is why that member advised the previous Government to change that system. I only wish it had not listened.Chris Hipkins: Is he satisfied thatNovopay will ever be able to work effectively given that recent defect reports still highlighted 125 serious or very serious defects with the system itself; if so why?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: I think it identified about two very serious defects in that previous report. There are some other serious defects—there is no doubt about that—but it is down from around 600 about 14 months ago to some today. Those defects do occur but I can tell the member that the system is running a lot better and is actually well within what the technical review said. If he is about to suggest that we replaceNovopay I probably will not take his advice with respect and I only wish that the previous Government had not taken his advice when it decided to replace theDatacom system.Chris Hipkins: Will schools be given any further support to cover the cost of administering theNovopay payroll system given that over a year and a half has now passed and it is still experiencing major problems resulting in time and energy that should be going into supporting kids’ education instead going into dealing with the ongoing payroll chaos thatNovopay has created?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: The member completely mischaracterises the situation today. He completely mischaracterises it. I appreciate that this was the same sort of panicky approach that he took back when he was advising the Minister about replacing the previous pay system but actually the system is running a lot better. There are still some issues—Dr David Clark: Why does the Minister hate teachers?Hon STEVEN JOYCE: Oh for goodness’ sake—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Hon STEVEN JOYCE: —shut up. [Interruption] Shut up you clown.Mr SPEAKER: Order! [Interruption] Order! When I rise to my feet I expect the member to stop his barracking.Hon Paula Bennett: Bit angry about the polls are you?Mr SPEAKER: Order! And I would also be grateful if there were fewer interjections on this side of the House.