Little AndrewANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition): It is good to have the opportunity to speak on Part 2 of the New Zealand Intelligence and Security Bill. I want to address specifically clause 23 which is the obligation to consult the Leader of the Opposition. I might say that this is a carryover of a function that is currently carried out a statutory function which I might say the directors of the security and intelligence agencies already carry out and I might say—for the sake of completeness—in a very successful way. I have appreciated the advice that I have been able to have in my time as Leader of the Opposition. I raise the point because later in Part 6 I will be referring to another part of the oversight of the agencies and that is the Intelligence and Security Committee and I will be talking specifically about the make-up of that committee. In the MMP environment the Leader of the Opposition nevertheless continues to play an important role. It is representative of the Opposition and it is a useful touchstone for the Government of the day to be able to deal with issues such as this where we should be striving for bipartisanship or at least non-partisanship and when it comes to issues of national security that ought to be the motivation and indeed I think is of pretty much all the members of Parliament.The difficulty is that although it is as a matter of public confidence a good thing for the Leader of the Opposition to be briefed on the activities and functions of the relevant agencies it is also right that members of other Opposition parties at least of what I would describe as substantial Opposition parties or parties in Opposition should also have access to relevant information about the agencies as a matter of public confidence. If that is not to be by way of direct briefing by the agencies themselves—as happens now and as foreshadowed by clause 23 when it takes effect—then the other way that that can happen is by adequate representation on the Intelligence and Security Committee.So the purpose of my contribution is to draw to your attention the value of the provision in clause 23 for the briefing of the Leader of the Opposition. That is important—important for public confidence in the agencies and important for the agencies too to remind themselves if for nothing else that they are to serve Parliament and the people of New Zealand as represented by all sides of Parliament. But I also draw to your attention that that alone will not be enough in terms of keeping members of the Opposition or at least parties in Opposition—particularly when we have a set-up like we do at the moment with one large party in Opposition leading the Opposition and two significant parties in Opposition specifically the Green Party and New Zealand First. There does need to be another means of at least keeping those parties informed and to the extent that public confidence is achieved by keeping those parties informed keeping them involved in an appropriate sort of way. Perhaps the Minister might like to reflect on how clause 23 when it takes effect—the assurance that it provides can be made real just through the briefing of the Leader of the Opposition if we are not to ensure good and adequate and proportional representation on the Intelligence and Security Committee. I leave that point there.