Stewart Barbara: Families Commission Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Procedure 
Stewart Barbara: Families Commission Bill — Instruction to CommitteeCWH In Committee Procedure 
[Volume:614;Page:10318] 
BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to speak to schedule 1 and particularly to clause 2 “Functions must be performed efficiently and effectively and in manner consistent with spirit of service to public”. I know that our faith in the public service justifies our belief that correct accounting practices will be followed as mentioned by the previous speaker. I have no doubt that those accounts will be audited fairly closely. I was quite interested to hear from the previous speaker about the application process that has been followed particularly when as far as I am aware no advertisements should have been placed at this point in time. 
Larry Baldock 
: They’ve been in the paper. 
BARBARA STEWART 
: It is interesting that the advertisements have been in the paper the member tells me before the bill has passed through Parliament but I suppose I should not be surprised by that at all. 
Clause 2 of schedule 1 says that the functions must be performed “efficiently and effectively”. They are suitably vague terms. They are very difficult terms to measure and even more difficult to define particularly when it comes to something like the Families Commission. How will the public or even the Government know whether the commission has ever met its goals or whether it has had value for the dollars that have been spent? While I can appreciate that these terms need to be very broad I think that unless we can be sure that we will get some efficiency and effectiveness from this commission we need to have it further defined. 
We do know that this commission advocates for everything and it will be very difficult to measure the commission against even the main functions that have been set up. As previous speakers have said it appears the commission is set up to normalise diversity so how on earth can efficiency and effectiveness be measured? I come from a corporate background and I know that efficiency and effectiveness are very difficult to measure and justify. I really wonder how this will be done. 
I also wonder who will carry out this audit of performance on efficiency and effectiveness. Will it be the Minister’s office? Will it be United Future? The United Future member talked about accountability but how can this broad general measure ever be used to hold people to account? I really do wonder. Will it be the amount of research that is completed and published? We do not quite know. How will we measure efficiency and effectiveness if other agencies are also carrying out the same functions as we have heard many many times? So when I look at clause 2 I really have to wonder how it will be done. I will be most interested to see how it is done. I will be looking at those audits very very closely having been involved in that area. 
I turn to the membership of the commission. I note that there will be three full-time commissioners and three part-time commissioners. I will be most interested to see what they achieve. The bill does not set out the exact role that each one will carry out. That has been left suitably vague so that I suppose anything that can be carried out will be carried out. It has not been defined as to whether one commissioner will be focused on research; one focused on marriage and the traditional nuclear family which has been talked about quite often in this Committee stage; or even one focused on solo parents. Who knows? I will be most interested to see what role the commissioners will be carrying out. 
I know when we have a term of office of 3 years I would want to be sure that the commissioners achieve what they set out to achieve. I know that achievement means different things to different people but I am really concerned when I look at the term “efficiency and effectiveness”. Is that how the commissioner will be assessed at the end of the year or at the end of the 3 years? I really do wonder. While I can agree that it is quite good to have that term so general as a member of the public or as a member of the Government and the Opposition I wonder how on earth this commission will ever be measured.