Williamson Maurice: Public Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
Williamson Maurice: Public Transport Management Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:650;Page:18632] 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON (National—Pakuranga) 
: 
 Just let me pick up that matter again. It is not good enough for Mark Gosche to say that the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee called a special meeting in the lunch break which is when it was— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: It was in the morning. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: The meeting was actually in the lunch break between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. and the member knows it. And that is all it was—a special meeting at lunch time. I was not in Wellington so I was unable to participate yet I had participated— 
Hon Annette King 
: That’s not our fault. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Actually it is because Mr Gosche called the meeting at very short notice. All I can say to the Minister is that if she were doing her job properly as a Minister should she would have made sure that any advice from the Regulations Review Committee was taken into account by the committee and it was not. 
I want the Minister in the chair the Hon Annette King to tell us of one example of that ever happening in the past. I have done some research and it is not known in this Parliament for a report to a subject select committee from the Regulations Review Committee advising that it has some concerns that should be taken into account not to have got through and for the Government to then say when the report has got through that it does not care and will not even let us have one day to look at it. 
I repeat that that was the commitment—a watertight commitment—and the chairman cannot in any way say that National has ever broken its word on any commitment we have ever given to that select committee. We have always stuck by our word. We said we wanted the bill to come back to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee for just one day so that we could look at knitting in the changes advised by the Regulations Review Committee and that we would then report it back as is. It still could easily have been back before the House as needed. It could have easily gone through given that the Prime Minister says we are going to box on into September and probably even into October as a House. So there was simply no need for the urgency and the rush. It is simply an example of appalling process. I do not think that any Parliament anywhere else in the world other than maybe Zimbabwe would tolerate such a— 
Hon Annette King 
: Rubbish! 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: The Minister keeps going on about this being rubbish but she does not have a single example of such a situation ever occurring before. I have asked about it and I can tell members that the advice given was that the best way to resolve this matter was for the committee that had heard all the evidence to look at it. The Minister should remember that. It should be looked at by those members who had sat listening to evidence on this very matter—a matter that New Zealand Bus for example had raised with Professor Taggart whose submissions to the Regulations Review Committee concerned the delegation of lawmaking powers in the bill. 
Those are all issues that the select committee should have had the ability to decide on in terms of how and where the changes if any would be knitted into the current bill and it should have been done through a proper process. Otherwise we are saying that the select committee process is a complete farce. The central issue was not put before us. Again I agree that it was not anyone’s fault from the parliamentary side of it in terms of any political party but finding where the fault lies and saying: “Well OK we’ve now uncovered a massive snafu in the process— 
Hon Mark Gosche 
: It’s all fixed. 
Hon MAURICE WILLIAMSON 
: Mr Gosche keeps going on that it is all fixed as though Labour has the right to decide what is fixed and what is not. This shows the sort of a steamroller dictatorship that this country is in. “All fixed” says Mark Gosche “like other members of the select committee you don’t count. You don’t get to vote. You don’t get to have a say.” That is what he is saying to members of the select committee. He is saying that we do not get to do that—that it is all fixed because Labour has decided on doing something which is a cosy little deal with the Minister putting forward a Supplementary Order Paper. 
Where is the democracy? How does the Minister think the dozens and dozens of people who came to that select committee and made genuinely serious submissions on the bill will feel about the fact that an issue that is central to this legislation was not considered because we did not know about the Regulations Review Committee report? And how does she think they will feel about the fact that the select committee chairman Mark Gosche said: “Well let’s not worry about it. Let’s not have the committee see it through.”? 
It is not as though there is urgency as such for this bill to go through. This sort of issue has been floating around in the system for some time. In fact Cabinet agreed to this particular legislation in February 2007. We cannot say this has been rushed legislation because Cabinet agreed to it 18 months or more ago. Suddenly in the very last week when Labour members were trying to bang through a whole lot of stuff under urgency they realised there was a snafu. Then the chairman Mark Gosche has the absolute cheek to say: “Don’t worry it’s all fixed. We”—Labour that is—“have decided how it will be and how it should be fixed.” 
I say on behalf of the National Party that we find that a complete affront. Labour got the Minister to do a Supplementary Order Paper and it is all done. We do not count and we are not even allowed as members of the select committee to hear about it.