Smith Lockwood: Offices of Parliament Address to Governor-General 
Smith Lockwood: Offices of Parliament Address to Governor-General 
[Volume:662;Page:10464] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The member makes a very good point. I have not wished to intervene with members because one could argue that statements of intent and that kind of thing do relate to Budgetary documentation and therefore one could argue that the work programme of these offices is relevant to that extent. 
I must tell the House that I have a growing concern that members are coming to this House with a typed-out speech and reading the speech to the House. This is a House of Representatives where members debate issues. The question we are debating at the moment is that a respectful Address be presented to His Excellency the Governor-General commending to His Excellency the appropriations and information for the 2010-11 financial year in respect of those votes. I expect to hear some debate around that motion—that is what this House is debating. I am concerned that too often we are hearing speeches prepared by party research units read out to the House that form no part of any recognisable debate whatsoever. 
I do not want to be unfair to any member so I say to the honourable member Rahui Katene that I am not being critical of her. I just want to alert the House to the fact that this is something I will be discussing further with leaders in the House. I am very concerned that we are seeing this place as no longer a place of debate but a place where too often prepared speeches are read to the House. This is a House of Representatives. The freedom of speech in this place was hard fought for over many years and we should not throw it away lightly. I apologise but the member should be mindful of the motion we are actually debating. 
RAHUI KATENE 
: Thank you Mr Speaker and I take your point. This report is money well spent by the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. We hope this House will be taking up the suggestions she has made in this report because it will show that the money has been well spent if we listen to them. 
We want to bring attention to the fact that the commissioner’s work programme has increased over the last little while. We note that on the basis of this increased demand the report recommended that the commissioner’s annual appropriation be reduced by only $150000 of the recommended $312000 annual provision for the Electricity Commission audit function. Although it may appear to be a bit of a Clayton’s provision it provides ongoing support to endorse the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. We need to make it clear to the House that what this office is doing is very important and that we see the importance of what it is doing. We see that it is very important that we bring this into the House to look not only at hard economics but also at what those economics are doing to our environment. We have a longstanding interest in measuring indicators and the economy in a way that encourages everyone to take responsibility for the good health of the environment. For that reason we hope this House takes seriously the work of the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment. Thank you. 
Motion agreed to and Address agreed to.