Fenton Darien: Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFenton Darien: Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 November 2013. Volume:694;Page:14571. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DARIEN FENTON (Labour): I am going to endeavour to take a call on the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill. You will forgive me if my voice collapses halfway through. I have the lurgy that many other members of Parliament have had and I can see the—Hon Christopher Finlayson: No I’m as fit as a fiddle.DARIEN FENTON: —Minister looking very sympathetic. Well at least he is not gloating.Moana Mackey: Viruses have no effect on him.DARIEN FENTON: Is that right? Does he carry around garlic or something? Anyway it is a pleasure to take call on Part 1 of the Members of Parliament (Remuneration and Services) Bill. In responding to the last speaker Metiria Turei I have some sympathy with what she said. I have a lot of sympathy with the general public’s view particularly at a time when we are facing workers struggling to get payincreases with 46 percent of the working population not having had a pay increase. The Government is proposing to make it even harder for workers to conclude collective agreements and win pay increases—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): Order!DARIEN FENTON: So I completely understand and support the comments that people have made.However I do want to say in speaking to the purpose of this document that I think the Government Administration Committee has done an excellent job.Chris Auchinvole: Thank you.DARIEN FENTON: I have read through the report. The committee is chaired by the excellent member Ruth Dyson and I know that the member Chris Auchinvole was there as well. I think the changes to the purposes clause make a lot of sense. They spell out very clearly what this bill is intending to do. It is “to ensure that the House of Representatives and its members are properly supported in a way that maintains confidence in the integrity of Parliament.” That is very very important. We do have to be properly supported to do our jobs but we also have to be able to demonstrate integrity. I think the changes that this bill brings do enough to demonstrate integrity in Parliament. The other purposes in the bill include “providing for the remuneration of members of Parliament;”. Members of the public do get upset when we get pay increases but it is important to emphasise that this bill continues the practice of remuneration being decided by the Remuneration Authority so it is very much at arm’s length from Parliament and is independent.The bill is about “ensuring that members of Parliament are provided with the services that they require to enable them to carry out their roles and functions.” Metiria Turei and others have talked about the importance of us actually being in this place of coming to Wellington. I do not know why anyone would think it was a perk to leave home at 5 o’clock on a Tuesday morning and get on a plane to come to Wellington particularly when it is not a very nice day and the plane does the waving of the wings as it is coming into Wellington. But we do have to be here. Our primary job is legislating. Our primary job is as legislators and that is why we are here. Our primary job in Opposition is to hold the Government to account so that is why we must be in Wellington. We cannot do this by remote control. We have to be in Wellington.Also we do need efficient and effective systems for determining the services that are provided to members of Parliament and may I say that I think the support services we have around this Parliament are excellent. I want to put on record my thanks to the parliamentary staff and to Parliamentary Service staff who do a wonderful job in very difficult circumstances. The tricky one really is around the travel services for the family of members of Parliament. This bill will change that so that those travel services for family members are decided by the Remuneration Authority. The tricky bit the point of conflict is that the travel arrangements of members of Parliament will not be decided on; they will continue with the current arrangements.As I say I think the select committee did an excellent job. I know it heard from many submitters—about 18 submitters. The committee considered this issue very carefully and I am sure it considered how this is a deception for the public. But I think it is important also that the travel arrangements for members of Parliament to do their job do involve people who actually understand what doing the job is all about—the people who know what it is like to be in this place know what the requirements are know when we are expected to turn up here and know when we are not. I think as I said that the select committee has done a very good job of changing the purpose clause of this bill. Clause 4 is I think a very useful overview. I am sure that we are going to talk a little bit more about other parts in the bill but I think it is a very useful overview. Thank you.