Barry Maggie: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBarry Maggie: State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 02 July 2013. Volume:691;Page:11605. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MAGGIE BARRY (National—North Shore):I rise to speak in the Committee stage of the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill. It came through my select committee the Finance and Expenditure Committee so I sat through the submissions and the animated discussions that ensued within the committee ranks. It is a bill of course that was sponsored by the Minister of State Services the Hon Jonathan Coleman.This is as others have pointed out an omnibus bill. It amends the State Sector Act the Public Finance Act and the Crown Entities Act to provide the legislative grunt really to deliver Better Public Services. There have been some proposed changes which I will briefly outline to you tonight to the State Sector Act 1988. Effectively the bill is about strengthening extending and improving the management of the State sector and public finances.When it comes to the strengthening provisions it strengthens the State Services Commissioner’s role in leading the State services. It extends the chief executive’s responsibilities to consider the collective interests of the Government and the longer term sustainability rather than being focused on individual departments and a shorter-term view which has to be good. Also it improves governance across the system which is part of the overall thrust of this National John Key - led Government to improve the sector. When we look at some of the new provisions within the bill it does put in a new organisational arrangement called the departmental agencies. That is going to really provide more for the options available for delivering public services.Among the more contentious aspects that were considered by the Finance and Expenditure Committee and certainly exercised the attention of a lot of the submitters was around that issue of redundancy which other speakers have spoken of. As a result of the discussions some changes were made. But it is important to note that the key provision of the bill relates to civil servants who have been made redundant but have a new State sector job to go to and therefore they will not receive a redundancy. You are not going to receive a redundancy—and these are the provisions that were argued through—if for example you start your employment the next working day or indeed perhaps even before your term is up. You will also not be paid a redundancy if you are taking on a job that is treated as undertaking continuous service and that is within the body of the State Service itself.You also have to have had duties and responsibilities that are comparable to the current job. You cannot really have been someone who works here in Parliament and then suddenly be expected to go out and man the roads somewhere. There has to be a comparable set of skills and they have to be matched. Perhaps some might argue that there is a match of skills in that but there is not enough time in a debate of this kind to go into that. But having a collective package of terms and conditions that are no less favourable than those that apply to the current position has been spelt out. Also you cannot be expected to travel very long distances for the job that you are doing. These are the kinds of provisions that the submitters who came to us were very keen to have but I think really it is important to note that not every single aspect of every element of their conditions has to be exactly the same for the redundancy to not apply.I commend this bill to the Committee because it is part of what we are doing as a Government to reform the State sector to ensure it delivers better public services to New Zealanders. Thank you.