Parker David: Governor-General Bill — Third Reading 
Parker David: Governor-General Bill — Third Reading 
[Volume:668;Page:15141] 
Hon DAVID PARKER (Labour) 
: 
 First of all I congratulate the Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture on behalf of the Prime Minister on reading out the right speech. I was somewhat amused to learn that in respect of the previous bill the wrong speech was read out. In fact it was one that is already in  
Hansard 
. I would like to put on record that one of the reasons that the Deputy Speaker declined our application to seek leave to table the earlier speech was that the fact that it is already in  
Hansard 
—and it is now in twice. 
The Governor-General Bill is a relatively simple bill. It is supported by the Opposition. The bill as the Minister said updates the way in which the Governor-General is remunerated. It updates that and makes it clear that the salary of the Governor-General ought to be taxed and grosses it up so that after tax it is roughly the same amount that the Governor-General currently receives. It clarifies how allowances are to be paid and it does that in a way that the Opposition agrees is appropriate. I think it has already been put on record in earlier stages of this debate that the old legislation is so antiquated that it refers to the fact that the Governor-General upon appointment who way back then was often appointed from the United Kingdom had a right to a trip by boat— 
Phil Twyford 
: Sailboat. 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: —sailboat—from the United Kingdom to New Zealand as part of his or her conditions of appointment. Obviously that is a bit out of date. 
Another matter I would put on record once again is the constitutional importance of the position of Governor-General. It is a very important position. The Governor-General stands as the Queen’s representative in New Zealand. The Queen is the head of State in New Zealand and her representative in New Zealand is the Governor-General. The Governor-General holds a very important constitutional position both in the day-to-day administration of justice and in the various reserve powers and prerogative powers that sit with the Governor-General. 
Hon Phil Heatley 
: This is breaking news! 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: Well it might not be important to Mr Heatley but Mr Heatley does not understand these issues very well. 
Phil Twyford 
: No respect for the monarchy! 
Hon DAVID PARKER 
: No respect for the monarchy! Various submissions made to the Government Administration Committee suggested that the mode of appointment of Governor-General ought to be changed. Those submissions generally came from people who thought that New Zealand should move from having the Governor-General as a representative of the Queen to having the Governor-General appointed as a New Zealand official by some process that would effectively move New Zealand from having a monarchy-based system to having a republican system. That was obviously outside the scope of this bill. I am not a person who has a strong view about that but I do have a strong view that if there is ever a move to republicanism the appropriate method of doing it will be by way of having a Governor-General with the same form and functions as the current Governor-General rather than moving to an elected or presidential system which would cause all sorts of changes and problems including bringing to a head constitutional issues such as the proper place of the Treaty of Waitangi in a constitutional sense when these issues are perhaps best worked through gradually as they currently are through the Treaty settlement process. 
I will not say much other than that. Labour supports this legislation. I thought it was appropriate that the Prime Minister attended Parliament and spoke on the first reading. He has not made contributions to subsequent readings which is not all that unusual for the Prime Minister since the Prime Minister is obviously very busy. Perhaps given the controversy we had around Paul Henry’s comments that were quite insulting to the current Governor-General it would have been appropriate for the Prime Minister to take a call and show his support for the Governor-General. Having made those comments I say that Labour will be supporting the third reading of this bill.