Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members 
[Sitting date: 14 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6583. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
9. 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
 to the  
Associate Minister of Education 
: Does he stand by his statement “Yes I do have confidence in Novopay”? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS (Associate Minister of Education) 
: 
 As a payroll system I do yes. But I fully acknowledge the frustrations that staff payroll administrators principals and many in the sector have had to put up with as the system has rolled out. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Did he receive or review an implementation plan for Novopay before the new system was implemented; if so when? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: No there was not one single implementation plan with regard to Novopay. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Who signed off on the implementation of the Novopay payroll system? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: The recommendations to go live with Novopay came from the Novopay board. It made recommendations to me. Included in those recommendations were assurances that there were no major difficulties no tier 1 senior issues. I signed off and recommended that. It was implemented on the basis of that advice. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Will employees who have incurred late-payment penalties or defaulted on any automatic payments—for example mortgage repayments—as a result of payroll errors receive any compensation either from the payroll provider or from the Government as their employer; if not why not? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: The Ministry of Education has already made it clear that individual staff in the education sector who have suffered some economic issue because of their pay being not paid underpaid or something like that are able to contact the ministry and/or their school officer and they will be investigated and addressed. 
Chris Hipkins 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Minister did not answer the question. He said they would be investigated. I asked specifically whether— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No his final words were “and addressed”. His final words were “they will be investigated and addressed”. “Addressed” one presumes means something. The member can dig further on what “addressed” means I imagine. 
Chris Hipkins 
: All right. Thank you Mr Speaker. I will have another go. 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: He thinks he’s so smart. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! [ 
Interruption 
] Order! Order! You can see—can I call on the Attorney-General— 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: No you can’t call on me for anything. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: OK. You can see the disorder the House gets into sometimes with unhelpful interjections. 
Chris Hipkins 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. While you were dealing with that I had an opportunity to review the question that I had asked previously. I did not use the word “address” at all; I asked whether there would be any compensation. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: No the member asked whether they would be compensated and the Minister’s answer was that the problems for an individual would be investigated and addressed. “Addressed” usually means doing something about it but that can be explored further I think. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Will addressing the problem that has been identified by those employees who may have incurred late-payment penalties or fines etc. as a result of defaulting on payments include paying them financial compensation? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: No decisions about compensation have yet been made. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Can he give employees reliant on Novopay an assurance that they will receive their correct holiday pay prior to Christmas; if not what action is he taking to ensure that this happens? 
Hon CRAIG FOSS 
: I have an assurance and the Ministry of Education has issued a press release that assures that all those in the education sector will be paid as part of the normal end-of-year start-of-year holiday pay etc. It gives that assurance in the name of the Secretary for Education and the Ministry of Education.