Clark David: Standards and Accreditation Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: Standards and Accreditation Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 01 July 2015. Volume:706;Page:5047. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North): The majority of the contributions on the title and commencement clauses so far have focused on the title and I want to applaud my colleagues for their creativity in producing titles that describe the debates that we have had here in the Chamber. There have been some lively debates and there have been some genuine concerns raised and some frustration from this side of the Chamber that the Minister in the chair the Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs has not made more contributions to perhaps justify the direction that has been taken in putting this legislation inside the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment when the independence in the past has served us so well.I wish to focus my contribution on the clause that relates to the commencement of the bill and suggest an alternative date for commencement and suggest that new subclause (2) of clause 2 be amended so that the effect of it is that the bill comes into effect in April 2018. That would allow of course for a more sensible decision-making process by a more sensible Government. I am hopeful that in 2018 we will have a more sensible Government that will actually listen to the submitters on select committees; a Government that listens to the people. That is something that we on this side of the Chamber would like to see.The feedback I am getting from across my constituency—in fact across New Zealand as I go and make small business visits and so on—is that the Government is no longer listening. It is a Government that has said: “Goodbye. Farewell. We’ve got our own agenda and we’re implementing it. Here we go. We’ll listen to your submissions with beans in our ears. We’ll sit in the select committee we’ll nod we’ll shuffle our feet but we won’t really listen because we are under instructions from Minister Joyce to get on with it to subsume everything into the massive monolith of ‘MoBIE’ which has its great big sign outside its $140000 TV screen its $260000 sun deck with barbecues its hair straighteners its $23000 fridge. That ministry should absorb everything.” That is Steven Joyce’s agenda as we have seen—to create this monolith. This is another aspect of that empire that he is building. He is pulling the standards-setting procedures inside that.No doubt within a matter of months he will be choosing the colours of its brochures. He will be saying to the standards and accreditation committee: “You’re not communicating with the public the way I like. Set your brochures out in landscape format—landscape format. I’ve had enough of this portrait format; we need some landscape format.” That will be Steven Joyce. You can guarantee it. He has got a track record on this stuff. He will be rewriting the submissions. He will be controlling the whole jolly thing. We will still see exports falling as a percentage of GDP as they have continuously with this Minister.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Title and commencement—title and commencement remember that.Dr DAVID CLARK: Title and commencement. And so if we push this out to 2018 we would see more sensible decision-making. We would not see this particular aspect of our important arrangements pulled into the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment under the control of Steven Joyce and his mega-ministry which is appealing to the multinationals. We would see it focused more nearly on the interests of small and emerging businesses—those businesses that are going to diversify our economy and those businesses that are going to bring future prosperity to our country.We need a Government with vision. We need a Government that makes sensible decisions and that listens to submitters. Therefore if we push the commencement of this bill out until April 2018 we hope that we will have such a Government—a Government that listens to the people a Labour-led Government a Government of the future that is looking to diversify the economy. That is why my submission is that we should change that clause to ensure a more sensible decision-making process. Thank you.