Brown SimeonSIMEON BROWN (National—Pakuranga): Thank you Mr Chair. For the new Minister of open Government I thought that was a shocking performance—trying to hide the details of this bill from the New Zealand public—and he should be doing a far better job than trying to shove things through in the depths of the evening and dark of night when the public of New Zealand have a right to know what this Parliament is passing and what the legislation actually means. When legislation has consequential amendments that means it changes other pieces of legislation as well. So we're not just looking at the Education (Teaching Council of Aotearoa) Amendment Bill; we're also thinking about the Ombudsmen Act the Privacy Act and the State Sector Act—all of these pieces of legislation are being changed by this bill which we here in Parliament are looking at tonight.This comes back to the point around Chris Hipkins' elevation to the role of Minister of open Government. I just want to really congratulate him for taking on board that new role. He needs to take it seriously not just in whatever role that he actually has but also in every single piece of legislation that he is progressing in this Parliament as the Leader of the House and as Minister of Education. I'd like to refer to what these changes are. The consequential amendments that are being made to other enactments—firstly in clause 8 the Education Council Rules 2016 are renamed: From the commencement of this section—(a) the Education Council Rules 2016 are called the Teaching Council Rules … and (b) every reference in any enactment and in any document to the Education Council Rules 2016 must unless the context otherwise requires be read as a reference to the Teaching Council Rules 2016." My question to the Minister is in looking at that clause what other contexts would he consider may be raised that it could be read otherwise? What guidance could he provide to the committee around that?I think it's important to know what's being suggested by the reference to "unless the context otherwise requires". I mean he could just reply and say "Well the context might require something separate." but can he give some examples as to what that might be? Maybe his officials have some examples in mind which he could readily ask them to provide to him so that the committee could be a little bit more clear as to what we are considering tonight and potentially putting into legislation.Clause 9 talks about "Consequential amendments to other enactments" and it amends the enactments specified in schedule 4—so that's the Ombudsmen Act. Basically what it's doing is it's changing the name from the Education Council to the Teaching Council. So it's making it that inconsequential change and we can talk about how inconsequential this piece of legislation is but we have canvassed those arguments in depth this evening. So it makes those amendments—"Unless the context otherwise requires every reference in this Act or any other enactment to—(a) the Education Council must be read as a reference to the Teaching Council: (b) the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand must be read as a reference to the Teaching Council of Aotearoa". So again we have there in clause 9(2)—it says "Unless the context otherwise requires every reference in this Act or any other enactment". It's a very broad term that's being used: "any other enactment". Have the officials looked at what all those other enactments might be—are they aware? When I went to law school and I studied law and I had a look at the library all of the pieces of legislation were sitting in the library and once a year someone came around and they had to go in there and they had to tape over all of the legislation books all of the changes which Parliament had made. So the legislation that we make and the consequential amendments which are made have an impact not just on the law but on the law books. That has to be changed not just online but in all of those different places. So have the officials got a real awareness of the actual impact that this legislation will have? How many references are being made to the "Education Council" which will have to be changed because of Part 2 of this legislation?So I'd like the Minister to give us some examples. Get on his feet—he was very quick before. Get on his feet again and give us some examples as to what these consequential amendments might mean talk about what "the context otherwise requires" and what that might mean give us some examples around what that is—and maybe even his ask officials to provide the Minister with a few because I'm sure they've thought very deeply about that—and give some clarity to this committee. What we want is some openness and transparency in this Parliament and as the new Minister of open Government that's what he should be doing."