Key John: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
Key John: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17941] 
JOHN KEY (National—Helensville) 
: 
 We are engaging in the title debate on the Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill. There are a number of parts of this bill that I think New Zealanders when they reflect on them during their Christmas holidays will have major concerns about. The first concern will be around the Fiscal Responsibility Act which is now to be embedded in the Public Finance Act. We should take just a moment to reflect on our history and on why the Fiscal Responsibility Act played such an important part in the backdrop of New Zealand’s financial management. Let us remember that in 1990 when National came into office the then Minister of Finance Ruth Richardson was delivered a set of books by a Government that frankly had cooked them. Those books were full of lies and deceit. They were not accurate not correct and not a reflection of the financial health of our country. They were quite the opposite of that and they were delivered by a Labour Government that was very happy to have a set of books— 
Hon David Carter 
: Dr Cullen had his fingers all over them. 
JOHN KEY 
: That is right. Dr Cullen’s fingerprints were all over those books and they were a disgrace. 
Ruth Richardson stood tall and she said that books like that would never be presented to the public of New Zealand again. She said a future Government should never have to come in and inherit a situation that was so badly portrayed to the people of New Zealand and an incoming Government should not be cheated and deceived by a set of accounts that it should be able to rely on. That was the history of the Fiscal Responsibility Act which was a tremendously important piece of legislation. That legislation went on to set out a whole number of conditions that are met today on everything including the Fiscal Strategy Report. There is some transparency about the way the Government is to spend money and more important about its debt levels and its intentions as it goes forward in managing the Crown accounts. 
What this Government is going to do if it passes this legislation is to surrender the position that the Fiscal Responsibility Act had as a pre-eminent piece of legislation by burying it deep in a 500-page document so that it does not see the light of day. It was embarrassed by the fact that the Fiscal Responsibility Act was brought in by a National Government because of the actions of a Labour Government in years gone by. It does not like the fact that it presented a cooked set of books to an incoming National Government and now it is going to render the Fiscal Responsibility Act not into stand-alone legislation not into something that stands proud and tall to guide our country but into something that is buried within a 500-page document that is being rushed though in urgency. When New Zealanders think about the implications of that they will be not only alarmed but concerned and very disappointed indeed. 
I think that New Zealand is taking a retrograde step with this move. The Government should reflect on that and leave the Fiscal Responsibility Act as independent legislation so that it can do its job and do it properly. The Government of New Zealand has a huge responsibility to get this stuff right. Every day the Government is out there taxing New Zealanders. It has $46 billion of taxation revenue coming in. Every day the Government is out there stripping New Zealanders of the incentive to work hard and be paid a fair day’s pay for doing a fair day’s work. This Government is an overtaxing Government. That is what it is and it is not proud to have the Fiscal Responsibility Act show exactly that. 
There are some other elements of the Public Finance Act that I want to make particular reference to in terms of the aggregation of output classes. When the Public Finance Act came in in 1989 it was landmark legislation. It set out best practice for the New Zealand State sector to follow. That Act played a significant part in the transformation of the economy. We reap many of the benefits of having a stronger economy today because we have managed to get a very important part of our economy the State sector working properly and firing correctly. What is to happen is that under the new legislation we are to abandon the specific output classes and we are to start moving towards a measurement term known as outcomes. We all know that those outcomes will be woolly and grandiose. They will sound fantastic but when the day of accountability comes— 
Hon David Carter 
: All spin. 
JOHN KEY 
: It is all spin. This is a Government that likes spin. That is why I know for a fact that yesterday the library bought a new book on weasel words. Steve Maharey is putting out a grandiose document on what he has done over the last 5 years and the library needs to detox it and understand it.