Dean JacquiHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Thank you Madam Chair. I'd like to make a few comments traversing the Estimates examination for Vote Internal Affairs and while I do have a few brickbats to offer tonight I also have a bouquet but I'll leave that till the end because that's a nice thing to do. First of all I want to make a comment around the RealMe project which we heard from within the Vote Internal Affairs Estimates hearing. It was a bit sad to hear the same story that we've heard for well over two years now since this Government came into being particularly in this year of delivery to hear that in terms of RealMe—which is New Zealand's online digital identity service. The concept is fantastic—it came in under a National Government of course—but the RealMe ID verified gives small businesses and individuals access to Government departments and other businesses with one point of ID. For individuals it is most useful because it can be used for passport services and all sorts of transactions and identity verification. So it was really very sad to hear as we were told—and I'm quoting—that Although the uptake of RealMe has been lower than expected it is still used extensively now that" and on and on and on it goes. In other words no progress—in this year of delivery no progress. So that's No. 1. I want to move now to local government and mention the Three Waters Review. Once again this is a story from the Minister of Local Government in the year of delivery about not a whole lot of progress. The Three Waters Review was announced in the wake of the Havelock North campylobacter inquiry. There were two reports. The first report came to the National Government. The second landed on the lap of the new Minister of Local Government. She promised the world; in fact she travelled the world. She travelled to Scotland Ireland England and Edinburgh had a look at different methods of water delivery and promised that there would be sweeping reforms. So what in the end did it come down to? It really came down to a $26 million Budget bid which was declined in the Budget for the three waters reform programme. Those of us who follow projects such as the three waters reform programme will notice that very quietly the Government seems to have dropped any reference to amalgamation of water bodies. Why is that? Because it was a dumb idea and local government—quite rightly—crunched the numbers on it and said to hang on a minute: there may well be problems in some areas of water delivery in New Zealand but also equally there are a number of councils throughout New Zealand who are doing just fine. Not only are they doing just fine now in terms of water service delivery but they are planning for the future. The picture is actually quite patchy. So those big hairy-chested reforms that the Minister of Local Government proposed have been quietly shelved backed up by the lack of a $26 million fund which was turned down by the Minister of Finance who no doubt had more important things to do with that money such as the light rail in Auckland or maybe the Shane Jones slush fund. Finally I just want to reference the proactive release of Government material and I've turned now to the Office of the Ombudsmen. The proactive release of Government material has been nothing but shadows. It has been nothing but talk and no delivery in this year of delivery. I would like to see Ministers disclose their ministerial diaries in a more timely manner than the three-month horizon which I'm currently experiencing. It's not good enough. This is the most open and transparent Government—Andrew Bayly: That's right. Hon JACQUI DEAN: —right—that the world has ever seen. So to release a diary three months after the fact falls somewhat short of that and I am sure is giving a lot of concern to the Speaker of the House who's stewarding this project through. Finally the bouquet. I just want to acknowledge Peter Boshier the Chief Ombudsman who when he came to our Finance and Expenditure Committee acknowledged that there are ways in which the Office of the Ombudsmen could serve constituency MPs in dealing with their constituents' complaints—he did that. He did that. He resolved it and I thank him for that."