Bradford Sue: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — First Reading 
Bradford Sue: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:614;Page:10757] 
SUE BRADFORD (Green) 
: 
 Overall the Green Party welcomes the introduction of this legislation which is the culmination of the years of hard work that have gone into the Review of the Centre. After Labour’s drastic and often destructive reforms of the State sector in the 1980s and National’s continued and sometimes damaging restructuring in the 1990s the Review of the Centre has been a very necessary exercise to begin to clean up the mess. Both the Labour and National policies divided and split parts of the Government into ever-burgeoning silos introduced competition and made costs and counting things a priority over quality ethics and outcomes. It is good that this Labour Government is taking some responsibility for cleaning up the mess it helped to create at a time when the chickens are still coming home to roost—as seen for example in the results of the Department of Child Youth and Family Services baseline review and in cases of major corruption in various departments when such things were unheard of in years gone by. 
This Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill marks the necessary next stage in the Review of Centre process. It amends the Public Finance Act the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the State Sector Actand creates a new Crown Entities Act. The Green Party is pleased to see that the bill moves to reduce the fragmentation that exists between different parts of the sector aims to reintegrate high ethical standards and values into the public service and clarifies the roles governance and accountability requirements of Crown entities. We are also pleased that there will be an increased flow of information available to Parliament itself from the Officers of Parliament the Reserve Bank and from other agencies outside the core public service. The new legislation will allow more than one Minister to have responsibilities within a vote. That is particularly important now that we have an MMP Parliament where Ministers from more than one party may be sharing responsibilities across interconnected areas. 
I also welcome the way that the bill finally provides or attempts to provide clear definitions of outcomes outputs and output expenses. It seems as though each year departments change the way that output classes are defined and the extent to which outcomes or outputs are prioritised—much to the bafflement of select committee members much less of anybody else. I hope that once this bill has gone through its own rigorous select committee process the result will be increased transparency in terms of MPs’ and the public’s understanding of what is going on. We also welcome the greater significance given to outcomes rather than to outputs and the fact that “outcome” as defined in the bill dares to mention the state or condition of the environment as well as that of society and of the economy. The bill does begin to lay a framework for improved accountability that goes beyond mere financial reporting for the State sector with more detailed requirements than ever existed in the past as to how departments are to report on their future operating intentions. 
Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. 
SUE BRADFORD 
: However it is disappointing that in its reporting clauses the bill refrains from being more specific and requiring social and environmental as well as financial reporting. That is one issue the Green Party will seek to pursue during the select committee’s consideration of the bill. This Government talks a lot about working towards triple bottom line reporting and aspects of that are starting to appear in some legislation and in the practice of some particular departments. This bill presents a golden opportunity to go a step further towards a much more cohesive and committed approach to triple or even quadruple bottom line reporting right across the State sector. 
This bill also provides new arrangements for developing senior leadership and management capability in the public service sets up a new leadership development centre and ensures that responsibility for the development of potential leaders is taken by both the State Services Commissioner and chief executives. I commend the Government for the moves it is making in that area but I note that it will take a lot more than legislation to nurture and develop a new generation of leaders with the capacity to rebuild a really strong public service across the board. At least the framework to allow that to happen is established here. 
However I do have one concern which is that secondments for people on the executive leadership programme are only from within and between agencies in the public sector. I think it is equally important in this day and age that people have an opportunity to experience a decent chunk of working life in the community sector as well especially as many departments are now engaged closely with the third sector without necessarily having a really good understanding of what managing and governing non-governmental organisations are really about. It seems to be accepted throughout the public service that a background in the private sector is a jolly useful thing—and so it can be at times—but I would argue that experiencing a decent slice of life at the tough front end of a community-based organisation is just as valid and useful an experience for a public sector leader to have had as time spent in the very different culture of the commercial world. 
There are many more aspects to this bill that I would like to talk about tonight but time is short. Overall I would just like to reiterate that the Green Party supports this first significant reform of New Zealand State sector legislation in a decade and to commend the bill to the House.