Hide Rodney: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hide Rodney: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 14 December 2004. Volume:622;Page:17876. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 This part suggests that our State Service is in dire straits under this Government. It says we need a special part of legislation simply to say: “Provide for new leaders to come through.” That is what new Part 4 inserted by clause 40 does. I ask the Minister why on earth we need good leadership training and planning to be included in legislation. That is the bit I cannot figure out. Are things so bad that we have to pass a law in Parliament under urgency making the State Services Commissioner responsible for “developing and promoting a strategy for the development of senior leaders and managers in the Public Service;”? Is the Minister seriously telling us that that is not happening? Why on earth are we passing a law to make that happen? 
Hon Ken Shirley 
: Not a whisper. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Not a whisper! Has that not been happening all along? Then we see that a new clause has been put in. We are going to require some general principles and the chief executive of each department must: “operate a personnel policy that complies with the principle of being a good employer;”. What does this mean compared with the Employment Relations Act? Is this an extra burden upon the chief executive of a Government department? I ask the Minister whether this requirement to be a good employer is something in addition to the Employment Relations Act. What on earth is this about? And what happens under this legislation if a chief executive is not a good employer? 
Hon Bill English 
: Nothing. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Nothing. So why are we sitting here under urgency debating this? Now I come to something else. I have to say that it is a bit rich coming from this Government particularly with this particular Minister in the chair that the legislation requires that the State Services Commissioner “may set minimum standards of integrity and conduct”. Trevor Mallard is telling the civil servants: “Hang on fellas you’ve got to set some rules for integrity and conduct.” This is from a Government in which the Prime Minister forges paintings—and she is going to make a rule about minimum standards of integrity and conduct! This is from a Prime Minister who then has the evidence destroyed! This is from a Prime Minister who goes steaming through Waimate at 100 miles an hour and does not— 
John Key 
: Like a bat out of hell. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: No she was going behind on her broomstick; that is how she did not know! She was going through like a bat out of hell—and she says that the Government is going to require minimum standards of integrity and conduct! This is from a Government that has breached contracts. This is from a Government that had a Minister who received $195000 and paid no tax on it. And this Government is going to set standards of integrity and conduct! Here is the interesting thing— 
Jill Pettis 
: Forty-seven percent in the polls! 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Isn’t Jill Pettis great! Has anyone ever heard Jill Pettis give a speech in this Chamber or does she just growl on like the Wicked Witch of the West calling out from her chair unable to get up and string two sentences together at this time of night? God knows what she has for dinner but she can never string two sentences together. Then one notices an interesting thing. [ 
Interruption 
] Is that the woman who has a pint of blood and then hangs upside down in the wardrobe at night for an hour or two? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: Order! Come to the bill. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: Clause 41 provides for new section 57 “Commissioner”—wait for this—“may set minimum standards of integrity and conduct”. Is anything stopping the State Services Commissioner now from setting standards of integrity and conduct? I do not think so. Notice that he is not required to do so; the legislation just says he may. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Trevor Mallard is breaking all the rules beside the Chairman. I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I point out that the Minister is in a very privileged position being beside you. At any stage he can take a call and contribute to this debate but the idea that a Minister can interject through a member’s speech using your microphone while you do nothing is actually an insult to this Chamber. I expect an apology for that. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I think we were proceeding quite nicely. I thought it was helpful to the member and I intend to leave it at that. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: I have made a ruling on that point. Does the member have a new point of order? 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. Are you saying that it is OK for a Minister from his seat beside you to interject on an MP speaking at the Committee stage? 
The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Clem Simich) 
: No it is not OK and the Minister will not be doing it again. I did not think he was interjecting. I am doing the judging. I thought the Minister was being helpful to the member. I may have been mistaken. No apology is required.