Woods MeganPROTECTED DISCLOSURES (PROTECTION OF WHISTLEBLOWERS) BILLSecond ReadingHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Minister of Housing) on behalf of the Minister for the Public Service: I move that the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Bill be now read a second time.The education—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sorry we understood that there was a legislative statement.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Sorry yes the legislative statement. I present a legislative statement on the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: Thank you Mr Speaker.DEPUTY SPEAKER: So if you can move that.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I now move That the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Bill be now read a second time.The Education and Workforce Committee have considered the bill and reported it back with the proposed amendments. I accept the committee's commentary and proposed amendments. Most of the amendments have been made in response to issues raised by submitters or questions from the committee. I'd like to acknowledge the work that both submitters and the committee have put into improving this bill.This bill has had cross-party support both at introduction and through the select committee process. All political parties in Parliament understand the importance of protecting people who raise concerns about serious wrongdoing that they see in or by their organisations. I wish to acknowledge the differing view put forward in the select committee report by the Green Party of Aotearoa. Several of the issues that the Green Party raised were already in our programme for future work on the protected disclosures regime while others have come to our attention as a result of submissions heard through the committee process. Some of these issues will require a further consultation and policy process. The appropriate way forward will depend on the effect of the major changes in this bill or developments in other areas of law and practice. For example the redress available to a discloser who experiences retaliation or victimisation is through the personal grievance and/or human rights complaint mechanism. Submitters have pointed out that both of these are challenging to use and take too long. We can't fix these processes through the legislation. If we establish something separate for protected disclosures it might have exactly the same issues.The biggest change between the Act and the bill is that whistleblowers will be able to disclose directly to an appropriate authority outside of their organisation. This is a huge change from the series of gates and hurdles in the current legislation and I expect it to make a big difference to those who are disclosing. This bill also rewrites the Act so that it is much easier to follow and spells out things that the Act is largely silent on such as what receivers of a disclosure are expected to do. Having said that I intend to progress some issues raised by submitters or noted by the committee through a Supplementary Order Paper before this bill is passed. I expect that Supplementary Order Paper to include: making it clearer that serious wrongdoing includes things that create serious risk to the health and/or safety of individuals and improving protection for supporting disclosers and disclosures made under a duty of some kind. I also expect that the issues not addressed through the Supplementary Order Paper will form part of a planned policy work programme that will continue alongside the implementation of this bill. I commend this bill to the House.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.