Webb Duncan; Rurawhe AdrianDr DUNCAN WEBB (Labour—Christchurch Central): Well what a lot of bluster! I've been listening to bluster for nine long years on trade. I must say I was astounded to sit on the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee and find out what a shambles the place was in. What on earth had they done? They've not only let our country fall apart but our foreign relations fall apart as well. And to read the Auditor-General's report on the dodgy Saudi sheep deal—quite frankly my jaw hit the floor. Now I'm not saying that there was any corruption in the New Zealand side of that deal but quite frankly it did not meet the standards of integrity which we expect. That's just one example of running down our foreign service.Now if we look at what happened in that deal there was money paid for nothing. The sheikh in Saudi Arabia got $11 million of benefits because he stamped his foot. Quite frankly if you look at the contractual obligations in there there was nothing there. And what's more if you look at the delivery itself delivery from New Zealand providers who now is the owner of the very companies who were providing that service? The sheikh—the sheikh himself.I was frankly appalled to see that under the National Party's watch there were shonky deals being done by one of our services which prior to that had the highest reputation. I can see that what has happened there is that the morale of that service of those fine people in those overseas missions has been eroded—eroded because of the cuts because of the huge and sweeping cuts that were proposed. We know that ambassadors and consuls of our own service spoke against what the Minister was proposing to do. That tells us a lot. It tells us that there was a massive rift a division between governance and what was going on on the ground.We need to value those people because we know that what they're doing in those overseas missions is extremely challenging and that the resources we give them are straitened enough as it is. And to suggest that we get 600 of them of the members of our foreign service of Foreign Affairs and Trade to reapply for their jobs and 300 of them are going to go—no wonder they felt broken. No wonder they didn't feel loved by the National Government—because they weren't.Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.Dr DUNCAN WEBB: Before the dinner break I was bemoaning the state of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the fact that it had in effect been run down over the last nine years and in fact eviscerated in large part. And because of the loss of morale through that one of the real concerns we have is the loss of very senior staff and whilst I have nothing but praise for the people who have been assisting the committee throughout my time there and who reported to us it is very clear that many of the staff left because of a real disenfranchisement a sense that they weren't being valued that the important work that they were doing wasn't being valued and one of the tasks ahead of that department is very clearly a rebuilding of the capacity the expertise and the experience.So the plan to make 300 staff redundant make 600 employees reapply for their jobs was really an utter misstep especially with the times that we are in today—times of huge uncertainty in the international arena. In fact 79 jobs were lost and of course those other experienced staff who left voluntarily were a matter of real concern. It is no wonder that 49 ambassadors and heads of foreign missions voiced their concerns in making a submission against that restructuring proposal—and quite publicly too. As I was saying that's a matter of concern—that there was a public rift in the Public Service in that sense especially in a sector of the Public Service that has such a proud tradition of loyalty a proud tradition of being utterly at one with the Government but on this they were at odds and indeed that has been a huge problem from here.And Mr Chairman—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry; the member's time is up.