Rurawhe AdrianOFFICIAL INFORMATION (PARLIAMENTARY UNDER-SECRETARIES) AMENDMENT BILLThird ReadingADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): I move That the Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill be now read a third time. Tēnā koe e Te Māngai o Te Whare ahakoa ngā piki me ngā heke o ngā kōrero kua tae mai ki tēnei pire hōhonu ki Te Motu nei.[Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. Despite the ups and downs of the contributions we have come to this esoteric bill for this nation.]I am very happy that we have arrived at the third reading of the Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill. The Official Information Act is one of the few mechanisms of democratic accountability: it gives taxpayers and voters the confidence that decisions are made on their behalf and that they are right and proper. The purposes section of the principal Act that this bill wishes to amend leads off with the following words: The purposes of this Act are consistently with the principle of the Executive Government's responsibility to Parliament". It then goes on to talk about the availability of official information. It talks about effective participation in the making and administration of laws and policy. It talks about the accountability of Ministers of the Crown and officials. It talks about respect for the law. It talks about promoting good government and proper access to official information. It talks also about the protection of official information.As a Parliament we expect to have in place robust mechanisms to hold the executive to account and the Official Information Act is one of them. That is why this bill is before the House. The executive Government is at the forefront of the purpose of the Official Information Act 1982 and as the Government Administration Committee was advised by the New Zealand Law Society parliamentary under-secretaries are part of that executive. Therefore there is an anomaly in how parliamentary under-secretaries are treated in respect of the Official Information Act and my bill will correct that anomaly.To do this clause 4 of the bill inserts "Minister of the Crown includes a Parliamentary Under-Secretary" to amend Section 2(1) of the Act. This simplifies the bill and gives it the flexibility to accommodate continued evolution of the executive roles and functions. This amendment refers only to official information held by parliamentary under-secretaries in their official capacity subject to the Official Information Act 1982. In its report to the Government Administration Committee the Ministry of Justice considered that this bill is consistent with the purposes of the Official Information Act with the constitutional position of parliamentary under-secretaries as part of the executive with the ability to exercise delegated ministerial powers. Therefore the Ministry of Justice recommended that this bill should proceed.I would like to make some acknowledgments. I want to acknowledge all of the submitters who made submissions and there were only a few. But I want to acknowledge in particular the submissions from the New Zealand Law Society and the New Zealand Law Commission. I reflect back to the first reading of this bill and there was some substantial opposition to this bill. Since then I think that the weight of evidence provided by the New Zealand Law Society and the Law Commission as well as the report from the Ministry of Justice has at the very least persuaded—but I would go so far as to say has kind of forced the hand of—the Government parties to reconsider their positions.As we saw in the second reading and at the Committee stage that reconsideration has been forthcoming albeit with some elements of discussion—some of which I thought were quite irrelevant. I reflect on some of the questions asked at Committee stage and I would have to say that where I come from we have a saying. It is only four words but it goes: "Good kaupapa wrong hui". That basically means that some people have brought up good topics within the discussion but it is at the wrong meeting or at the wrong process. So I wanted to just let people know that despite calling this bill a "silly" bill you must surely have to be beyond silly to vote for something that you think is silly. I will let the general public make their own decision about the ability of someone to be able to make that kind of statement in this House. But I do want to acknowledge the Government and the National Party members for reconsidering their position. As I said I think the weight of evidence from both the New Zealand Law Society and the Law Commission was such that it helped that process along.It would be an unusual situation for a Government I guess to vote against its own Ministry of Justice because the Ministry of Justice was very clear on its position on this bill. I want to acknowledge the members of the Government Administration Committee led by the Hon Ruth Dyson for the work that they did on this bill. I want to also acknowledge Chris Hipkins who originally submitted this bill and whom I inherited it from. I was very pleased to do so actually—as a then member of the Government Administration Committee I was very happy to accept that on behalf of the Labour Party. We are about open government. This is what this bill is about.As I said the executive Government is at the forefront of the purpose of the Official Information Act. The parliamentary under-secretaries are part of that executive and they should also be part of the Official Information Act where it is relevant to their work as a parliamentary under-secretary.I want to also just thank the House. This process has been a learning process for me as a first-term MP—to help a bill through its entire stages and to come to the third reading. I have learned a lot about this process—I have probably learned a lot more about people's own way of dealing with things and they have not always been upfront and honest about it. I think that as we are at the third reading it is actually time to either vote for this bill with real determination and purpose or just do not vote for it at all Mr Seymour. Nō reira ka nui te mihi atu ki Te Whare e tū ake nei ahakoa ngā piki me ngā heke e pā ana ki tēnei pire e tino mihi atu ki a tātou o tēnei Whare. Nō reira Mr Assistant Speaker tēnā koe.[Therefore I extend a huge acknowledgment to the House standing before me and regardless of the ups and downs relating to this bill I really commend us of this House. So thank you Mr Assistant Speaker.]"