Bayly AndrewANDREW BAYLY (National—Port Waikato): Well first of all it's good that we're coming to the conclusion of this debate and I just want to reiterate that from the National Party's perspective there are no concerns specifically with the Office of the Auditor-General. We acknowledge the good work that they do and they perform a very important function so I just want to put that on the record—I said that in the first speech that I made—but this bill is not about this. This bill is about the Government using legislation under urgency to deal with an issue that every other business in New Zealand is facing. What I'd say in response to Mr Robertson's last comment is when each of you—sorry. When each member from the Labour Party goes back to their electorates tonight I would like you to consider asking every—ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): Order!ANDREW BAYLY: I would like the members to consider asking at every business meeting they hold whether they thought it was appropriate that the Government should pass special legislation under urgency for one Government entity and in respect of their own businesses and their own electorate whether it is appropriate that they have to continue to tough it out—as the Government has said all along—with respect to saying If you're short of staff"—literally—"go and hire more people and pay them more or just train up more people and just tough it out."That's the central issue: I would like the members to be able to be honest with the people in their electorates and the business owners that they will be talking to and simply put that question and ask the point: is it fair that the Government should use special legislation under urgency but seeks not to address the systemic issue that each business faces in New Zealand when they're short of staff? That is the central call of the debate that we've been having. It's not that the Audit Office is not justified not that they do a poor job not that they're slow in doing their work; it is the issue that the Government wants to pass legislation for one Government entity but chooses not to address this huge issue and the biggest issue facing all businesses across New Zealand which is namely "I cannot get staff." So they don't have the opportunity to come and get special legislation and that's what I think is the biggest issue with this bill.The way that it's being done under urgency I think is a bit of an issue. If we had taken this bill to select committee I think the select committee would have been inundated with every business community grouping: Business New Zealand the Employers and Manufacturers Association and individual businesses—we would have been overwhelmed. I put to you as the members of this House that the reason that this bill was passed through under urgency was to stop that process being made public and being open to the business community to be able to participate in this debate. I think the use of urgency to do this has been another issue that is of significance and one that's detrimental to democracy. So that is the first issue.The second thing is: what are the mitigations? I've heard nothing from the Minister and I realise it's not the Minister's principal role but I've heard nothing from the Government members either about some of the mitigations and obviously Cabinet considered this issue. They had prior advance warning. They were made aware of this back on 16 June had time to consider it and even had time to draft the legislation before making us aware of the issue. The big issue is what were the mitigations and nothing has been put forward. So we are well aware that the Audit Office is under pressure. We need to make sure that there's adequate funding and I think the Minister was slightly cute: there is an appropriation to Audit New Zealand—it totals about $15 million—and the greatest source of revenue that the Audit Office receive is actually through charging other Government agencies for the audit costs. So there is a way to make sure that there is sufficient funding that the Audit Office has to be able to attract and retain its staff and it's absolutely essential that it does so. We've heard that in previous years there's been loss of staff and we've heard this year that it was 27. The issue is making sure that the Audit Office can pay sufficient money to make sure it can compete with the private sector and that is a crucial issue but we've heard nothing about that.The other issue is around the managed isolation and quarantine facilities. We've heard—TV1 made the report on 3 July—that 2000 spare rooms are available. I'm not suggesting for a moment that we need to make those all available to audit people but if we need to bring in good people from overseas there will be a certain cadre. If we're short of 27 and you work on a ratio of 1:3 for seniors to juniors that means there's nine extra spaces required. Again if that's part of the mitigation that should be contemplated. But again there's been nothing from the Government members about some of those mitigations.I think the biggest concern is this one about the Government thinking it can do one thing for itself but leave the wider business community facing the challenges every day and we're seeing it flow through into the business sector now. Many business owners you talk to now are saying how they're losing contracts and they're losing the opportunity to grow their business but in many cases they're going backwards because they cannot compete. We've heard from Mr Simon Watts that the hospitality sector has vacancy rates up near 20 percent so that many places are having to be in the situation where they cannot offer the same level of service because they simply do not have the staff. That is bad for New Zealand and what's worse it's actually very bad for both the staff that work at businesses because of the time pressure and the added pressure that they have every day at work but also for the business owners in terms of the type of proposition they want to offer their customer and their ability to compete with everyone else.I think there's a serious deterioration in what's happening. The biggest issue around this lack of access to adequate labour is just a massive issue for New Zealand and I'm really worried about that. I think the Audit Office is just a small symbol of what is happening and we need a Government that actually starts to recognise this issue and actually starts to address it comprehensively and not just talk about other wider issues and say to everyone else "Just get on and tough it out." I don't think that's an appropriate approach."