O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): It does give me great pleasure to speak in the committee stage of this bill and particularly to follow my colleague on the Social Services and Community Committee Mr Ngaro. Now it's been for me coming on this committee and this bill and having followed it the whole way through quite an eye-opener. It's interesting that you are sort of suggesting that we have another inquiry actually Mr Ngaro. I just wonder if you do listen to any of your colleagues in the House who have been somewhat critical of that same practice. I suggest that instead of perhaps whatever does distract you there next time you're in the House you actually have a listen because when we have inquiries on this side of the House they're ones that as a detective I know are designed to establish facts that we're going to need establish things that we require to make this country a better country.As I've watched this piece of legislation go through again it's been a wonderful eye-opener because what it does is it serves as something of a metaphor for the last Government who really believed that if you broke everything down into its component bits then everything would actually come right. Again—I repeat something from last week—one of the most disgraceful comments I heard was from Mr English the previous Prime Minister who said Now that you've taken these things off these public servants of New Zealand will sit down with their feet up again around New Zealand." Well that was an absolute disgrace and it actually belittled the Public Service—the very hard-working Public Service of New Zealand. But I will come back down to the substance of the bill. It's good to see that we are dealing with the debate as a whole instead of breaking it down into parts.We also did hear the submissions during this bill from the National Council of Women of New Zealand the New Zealand Nurses Organisation the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions the Office of the Children's Commissioner and the Public Service Association. One thing that really came through on all of those submissions was they were all very concerned to make sure that the intent of what we were trying to achieve with this was achieved. They were worried that what had actually happened in the past was that each Government department found they were actually able to shove this off to the social policy evaluation and research unit (SuPERU)—the work they should have been doing themselves—because they were so busy actually delivering those minute targets those minute key performance indicators that were a feature of what they did. So even the information that came out of it even the research and the data that came out couldn't be relied on because they were so busy ensuring that what they were producing kept the Minister of the day happy.Well that's changing because what's actually now—again I go back to particularly Part 1 here; if you break down clause 5—happening is the transferring of responsibility of the Family Violence Clearinghouse to the ministry. So what that will do is make sure that they understand they're part of the whole strategy and make sure that each of the Government departments now understands this is where you start: you go to the end to what success looks like and you work backwards. Now by ensuring that that work and the different components of what SuPERU did—and I might say that having produced 6514 publications during their time they did some great work—do go back the departments now understand what it is we are trying to achieve.Just the mention of the extra funding for example around the Family Violence Clearinghouse which has now gone to the Ministry of Justice: the funding this week—$76.157 million is to go into that area. Again with the research the work that's been done they actually now will not only have the responsibility; they will have the ability of knowing exactly what it is that they are expected to achieve.Again one of the other parts under clause 6 is transferring responsibility of the Hub—which of course is a one-stop shop for New Zealand social science Government research to the Social Investment Agency. Again through that agency as I mentioned before there are 6514 publications and that's all their research relating to education health and well-being crime and justice families and children and young people—all those things are going to the Social Investment Agency. Again it is making sure that the research—making sure the work they've done—is not just there; it's something they can actually act on. They've got that material they've got that research and they can do the job that New Zealand requires of them. They will not be sitting with their feet on their desk; they will now have a full understanding of what it is what success looks like and be part of it. Thank you Madam Chair."