Roy Heather: Appointments — OmbudsmanText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRoy Heather: Appointments — Ombudsman[Sitting date: 11 October 2007. Volume:642;Page:12317. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT): It gives me great pleasure to rise and support this Government motion today on behalf of the ACT party. It is a shame that Dave McGee is not sitting in the Clerk’s chair today although it certainly would not be his style to do so. But I do hope he is listening to all these very kind but very accurate reflections on his abilities and his time in this Parliament.I think pretty much everything that there is to say has been said but I would just like to add a couple of things. From a personal perspective and as many other members have noted I would like to thank our Clerk for his assistance and for all the great advice he has given to MPs over the years. Certainly when one turns up at Parliament as a new MP one finds that David McGee’s reputation precedes him. Everybody is very quick to say that he is the point to go to when sound advice and a sympathetic ear are needed and I have certainly been the beneficiary of such on occasion. In looking forward to hisnew job we can feel assured that he will fill his new shoes very ably and that he will be a great third Ombudsman.When I thought about what to say in this speech today knowing that I would be well down the list of speakers I went back to the parliamentary website and looked at the history of Clerks of this House. There has been a Clerk of the House since 1854 and certainly it has become something of a tradition. We inherited the position of Clerk of course from the British Westminster system. Dave McGee is somebody who is greatly respected both here in New Zealand and internationally for his abilities in his job and for the great advice and respect he has brought to the position. The shoes that the Clerk had to fill when he set out along this course 22 years ago were pretty big shoes to fill because we have had only 12 Clerks since 1854. Two of those held the job for a combined period of 52 years so this Parliament has been very fortunate in the people who have occupied that position. As I say several long-serving Clerks have steered Parliament through many important changes and as Mr McGee himself commented the other day his great challenge was steering Parliament into the new MMP environment. I imagine that that really was quite a challenge and has brought huge changes to our Parliament.Mr McGee commented—I am reading from a press release from Tuesday this week—that he had been here in Parliament for 34 years and Clerk for 22 years and he wanted a fresh challenge before he became “past it”. I hardly think that Dave McGee will ever be “past it” and we look forward to many years of his continued service in the Ombudsman’s office from this point forward when he takes up that position. He said that over his period of service he has sat under eight different Speakers and all of them have been very different I suspect but challenging and good to work with in their own ways. But he did comment that the major change he had had to contend with had been the transition to MMP. He said that Parliament has changed immensely as a result with outcomes becoming less predictable and with more diverse points of view getting heard. That has been in my view anyway a very very good thing.Just to conclude I thank Mr McGee for the service that he has brought to the New Zealand Parliament. I congratulate him on the respect that he has—which is well deserved as I say both here and internationally—and wish him on behalf of the ACT party all the very best in his new job. He will be greatly missed. Thank you.