Street Maryan: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-GeneralText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeStreet Maryan: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General[Sitting date: 14 May 2013. Volume:690;Page:9846. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour):It is a pleasure to rise to speak to this Government motion concerning the 2012-13 alterations to appropriations for Officers of Parliament and the 2013-14 appropriations for those same bodies. These three offices—the Office of the Auditor-General the Office of the Ombudsmen and the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment—are three of the checks and balances against the ultimate power of the executive. They are three of the things that continue to make New Zealand one of the most transparent democracies in the world. They are three of the reasons that we continue to feature very highly in Transparency International’s assessment of transparency and accountability mechanisms in developed democracies—or in any democracy because those countries that do not have democracy or any of democracy’s apparatus are always ranked at the very bottom of Transparency International’s ledger.This motion from the Government today is important for a number of reasons. It focuses on the fact that these offices account to Parliament. They do not account to Ministers; they are not the creatures of ministerial portfolios—they are offices of Parliament and they report back to Parliament. So the Government does not own them; Parliament decides on the appropriation for them and the offices’ appropriations are determined by a multiparty committee in this House.It might be appropriate for us to reflect on why the appropriations have needed increasing in this next round the 2013-14 appropriation. There are two possible reasons. One is that our citizens have become more actively engaged with the processes to which they are subjected. And why do people become more actively engaged in the processes that affect them? Well this brings me to my second point. If the processes are seen to be unfair are felt to be unfair or are felt to have been inadequately addressed or inappropriately executed then these offices provide—particularly the Office of the Ombudsmen—a venue some recourse that an ordinary citizen might have to get those complaints or differences addressed. The Office of the Auditor-General is critically important for being there as a check against the behaviour of a whole range of bodies including local authorities.The Office of the Ombudsmen is there for particular purposes especially in relation to the enactment of regulations and legislation. The Office of the Ombudsmen is often the last port of call for a citizen who has a dispute over just how a regulation has been implemented. The previous speaker Richard Prosser referred to plumbers and gasfitters as a prime example and so they are. The fact that the office’s work has been increasing could lead us to conclude that there have been more infringements of regulations and legislation that has been implemented in recent times or there has been a greater disregard of citizens’ rights in the carrying out of current legislation and regulation. So I am pleased that there is an increase of staffing for the Office of the Ombudsmen.I want to turn particularly to the Office of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. This office was set up under the Environment Act 1986. Its roots lie in the 1980s reforms of this country’s environmental administration following an OECD report of 1981 called Environmental Policies in New Zealand. This report recommended changes including strengthening the environmental advice to the Government and establishing an environmental body with separate audit and oversight functions. Those functions of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment have included reviewing the system of agencies and processes set up by the Government to manage the country’s resources and report to the House of Representatives. Again I state my previous point—the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment reports to Parliament; he or she does not report to the Government. The Government has its own agenda and that is cutting a swathe through environmental legislation as we speak. However the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment stands independent of any Government’s programme.My point here is that with the increase for the funding of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment—that is an additional $100000 in the annual appropriation and subsequent years largely to accommodate the cost pressures on the office’s operating budget which is a very good thing—it also needs to be borne in mind that the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment is increasing. And why is it increasing? Again there are two reasons. We have a more engaged citizenry who care about the environment and want independent advice not simply party lines about how well we are doing in the environment or how poorly we are doing with our environment and our natural resources. So we have engagement of people of all ages up and down this country on issues of environmental resources and they require more information.We laud the fact that science is making more and more of an impact on policy decision-making but it seems to me that in the area that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment oversees there will always be a need for more science as more and more issues come to the fore. A few years ago we would not have had a report on fracking. Now we have had one and we are awaiting the second. We are awaiting the second because there have not been enough resources for the parliamentary commissioner to expedite that second report as quickly as she would like. She has produced reports on wild and scenic rivers. She has produced a report as she does from time to time on an endangered species. She has done a report on marine mammals but the most recent report was on long-finned eels. She has produced reports on water quality and the marine environment. There is any number of reporting measures that the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment undertakes on behalf of natural resources and our husbanding of natural resources in this country.So Labour welcomes the fact that the baseline appropriation is to increase by $100000 per annum but I would suggest also—and I would like to say it on the record here—that we need to be constantly vigilant about what is going on outside of this parliamentary environment that requires additional resourcing to the Office of the Auditor-General; to the Office of the Ombudsmen in addressing complaints; and to the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. If we do not keep pace with the kind of funding they require their ability to act independently of any party in this House will be eroded. I support and endorse the recommendations of this motion.