Seymour DavidDAVID SEYMOUR (Leader—ACT): I rise on behalf of the ACT Party in support of this bill. I have to say I have kind of warmed to Mr Rurawhe's bill throughout the process of passing it. Of course I maintain my earlier position that it is a completely pointless bill. Just this afternoon I was reading and preparing information to be released proactively in one of my portfolios for all the world to see and at the second reading I showed the House just how many piles of that information have already been released. And of course any member who had any kind of gumption could make an Official Information Act request to either the Minister for Regulatory Reform or the Minister of Education for any official activity I have had assigned to me. Any member could have accessed all my official information through that route. So the bill makes no difference whatsoever to my functioning as a parliamentary under-secretary.However the bill has become attractive because it opens up some very interesting questions. Sadly my amendments in the Committee stage were ruled out of scope but I respect the procedure and traditions of our Parliament and as a result I have come to support the bill in the hope that it will be a launch pad for much greater transparency and more open government. My amendments proposed that the judiciary and the Ombudsmen for instance should also have the Official Information Act applied to them.Now that we have blurred the line between executive decision-making power and the Parliament why stop there? I think many people in New Zealand would regard it as being in the public interest to find out where exactly the Green Party members go given that they have the highest level of air travel spending of any party in this Parliament. Where do they go given that none of them has an electorate? I think that is something that the public of New Zealand would have a great interest in knowing so why do we not in future introduce the Parliamentary Service to the Official Information Act because I would like to know where the Greens go. Many of us would like to know where Denis O'Rourke goes just out of curiosity. He himself probably does not know. If we were to bring the Parliamentary Service under the Official Information Act all members including Denis O'Rourke could find out where Denis O'Rourke goes.I think that we have actually come upon a touchstone of what open government should mean for New Zealand and I predict that over time this bill will be a launch pad for many more members of the Government establishment in New Zealand coming under the Official Information Act. Just as an example in respect of the member who just resumed her seat Ruth Dyson people might like to know when she drives home and how she drives home. People might like to know all sorts of things about members' activities—whether they get stopped and breath-tested for instance. I can see all sorts of scope for people to want to know more about how members of Parliament and members of the Government establishment in New Zealand behave.So I support this bill because it makes no difference to me but it will make a very large difference to the tradition of public interest in New Zealand to which the Official Information Act should apply. I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.