Robertson Grant: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Protected Disclosures Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:653;Page:2757] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I will take just a brief call on Part 2 because obviously it is a very brief part in itself being just the one clause. It is a transitional provision that states in clause 13: “The amendments made by this Act apply to disclosures of information made after the commencement of this Act.” That is quite a normal clause in many ways but it does give me cause to refer back to Dr Hutchison’s speech—not the one we just heard but the one before that—where he accused me and my Labour colleagues of creating a climate of fear in the Public Service. I have to say that nothing is further from the truth. In fact this transitional provision although it is quite conventional gives rise to concern about those public servants at the moment in that climate of fear who may feel that they need to make some kind of disclosure under this Act but who will be feeling that they cannot. At the moment because they are not able to make disclosures under the bill until it comes into force they do not have the extensions that have been granted under this Act. I say to Dr Hutchison that the climate of fear is not being created by the Labour Party; the climate of fear has been created by the National Party’s strategy. Admittedly National was to do it all under the radar—to make these cuts in public services under the radar. John Armstrong wrote about this in the  
New Zealand Herald. 
 He said that National had learnt from the past. It was not going to do a big public slash-and-burn exercise in the Public Service; it was going to do it under the radar. Chief executives would be making the announcements not Ministers. They did not want to be associated with it. 
But I tell Mr Hutchison that I am proud of the fact that I am standing up for public servants. I am proud of the fact that I am going out there and saying to people that this is what is happening these are the jobs being cut—250 jobs at the Inland Revenue Department 80 jobs at the Ministry for the Environment 70 jobs at the Tertiary Education Commission—because it is the National Government that is making these cuts and it is ordinary New Zealanders who will suffer. A climate of fear has been— 
Nathan Guy 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. We are on Part 2 the transitional provision. This is a very tight part of this bill. The amendment is made and this is forward-looking. That member is extremely wide of this very tight Part 2. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: I have cautioned the Committee. We want to talk about the bill; I ask the member to come back to Part 2 clause 13. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: I do not have a lot to say here. I am just making the point that the clauses and the powers in this bill come into force only when the Act comes into force. At the moment we have public servants in the interim period before commencement who are in a vulnerable position. They are in a vulnerable position because the National Government has cut jobs in the Public Service and has cut back on services and those people are operating in a climate of fear where they will not be able to disclose the wrongdoing they see because of their fear. I think that is wrong. 
Part 2 agreed to.