Banks John: State Sector Amendment Bill Public Finance Amendment Bill (No 2) Crown Entities Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBanks John: State Sector Amendment Bill Public Finance Amendment Bill (No 2) Crown Entities Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11932. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]State Sector Amendment BillPublic Finance Amendment Bill (No 2)Hon JOHN BANKS (ACT—Epsom):What a sad and pathetic rant for so early in the morning from the ex-leader of the Labour Party Phil Goff. I remember that the late Bill Rowling when he was turfed out of the leadership of the Labour Party never carried on like that did he colleagues? He was a good man a statesman—not like we have heard from the member for Mt Roskill.I rise to support the third readings of the State Sector Amendment Bill and supporting legislation. These bills were formerly titled the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill. These bills make progress towards a more innovative efficient public sector that delivers better results for New Zealanders. That is crucial for improving the services provided by the Government. I want to pay credit to my bench mate the Hon Dr Jonathan Coleman for his work on these bills and the work of the Finance and Expenditure Committee.To illustrate the need for these bills I want to highlight just one of the changes made by this legislation relating to the responsibilities of departmental chief executives. This National Party - ACT coalition Government talks about responsibilities of chief executives quite a lot in this bill. In particular the bill will make explicit the stewardship responsibilities of chief executives on behalf of the Government representing the people of New Zealand. In ordinary use a steward is someone who is responsible for managing property on behalf of someone else. In a State sector context this means on behalf of the taxpayers and the citizens of New Zealand. Although chief executives have for a long time been responsible for managing the organisational health and capability of their departments this bill makes it clear that this requires proactive planning and management of the medium and long term interest. This is to ensure departmental maintenance and the ability to effectively serve successive Governments.So this is intergenerational legislation in the best interests of value for money on behalf of the taxpayers.As Minister for Regulatory Reform I am pleased to see that the bill also extends the duty of stewardship to legislation that departments administer. Although Ministers hold the key decision rights over legislation and legislative change they are not well placed to proactively monitor and manage the performance of legislation over time and to determine whether it remains fit for purpose.The ACT Party and the people of Epsom believe that for far too long Acts and regulations have been a result of undue haste poor-quality processes and inadequate scrutiny. Our statute book gets bigger and bigger every year. Hard-pressed taxpayers who produce the wealth of New Zealand face a thicket of rules. Businesses tell the Government and told the previous one that reducing the regulatory burden is what they want. The small businesses that I represent on Broadway Newmarket and around the Epsom electorate have said that for far too long they have had the Government on their backs and in their pockets too deeply. Well I have got good news for hard-pressed taxpayers and New Zealand businesses. These bills take a small step to improving the regulatory burden on New Zealanders. They create the obligation for ongoing stewardship of existing legislation and regulatory regime. Regulation should be an asset to New Zealand providing benefits that outweigh the costs to the users and the burdens that arise but unless a department is actively and systemically monitoring the performance of the regulatory regimes it administers then it will not know whether they are performing as assets or whether they have become liabilities.I agree with—and I respectfully disagree with his views onACT’s Regulatory Reform Bill and that is an argument for another day—the late George Tanner QC a former law commissioner and Chief Parliamentary Counsel. He said: “The lack of any systematic process for post-enactment scrutiny means that the routine maintenance of some very major pieces of legislation rarely happens.”—the routine maintenance of any legislation regularly does not happen. So we paint our houses and service our cars but we do not look after the laws that affect people’s lives—more important—and this legislation addresses some of that.The explicit stewardship role in these bills in relation to legislation is an important first step towards ensuring the scrutiny and maintenance takes place. Indeed the Government has already moved to outline its expectations for departments on their stewardship responsibilities for regulation. This is not exciting stuff. It does not get the House in raptures but it is important for the end-users who are the taxpayers who fund all the activities of this Government. The Government expects that departments—that is Government departments—will be actively monitoring the regimes they administer to ensure they are performing as expected. Where this is not the case departments should be advising the Government where changes could be made to improve regulatory reform and regulatory performance.Regulatory stewardship is about ensuring that the Government departments do not have a “set and forget” mind-set when it comes to regulation. Rather departments—that is Government departments—must be actively managing the regimes they are responsible for. The ACT Party would say that departments need to get better with the pruning and thinning of their regulatory forests. Removing the deadwood is good and necessary. When these bills are passed the Government will be monitoring departments’ progress on meeting its regulatory stewardship expectations and as Minister for Regulatory Reform I will have oversight for that and will be watching it very closely.Strong regulatory stewardship will ensure that New Zealand’s regulatory regimes are best placed to support growth in the economy. That is investment and growth in jobs and we will hear a lot more about that later today. Strong stewardship is crucial toimproving the performance of the State sector. So our aim should be clear in law and it starts here today this morning in this Parliament—clearly understood frequently checked for fitness for purpose and occasionally pruned. These bills are small but meaningful steps towards our objectives and this Government this coalition National Party - ACT Government says that taxpayers know all and that it is the taxpayers we are responsible to. We are servants of the taxpayers. We must make sure that any laws passed in this Parliament represent their best interests and value for money for them. That is why of course as Minister for Regulatory Reform I support these bills.