Sage Eugenie: Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSage Eugenie: Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill — Second Reading[Sitting date: 25 May 2016. Volume:714;Page:11298. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]EUGENIE SAGE (Green): E Te Māngai o Te Whare tēnā koe. I am pleased to take a call in support of the Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill and I am very pleased that the Government members have changed the position that they had on the first reading and are now supporting the bill. It looks as if unanimity has broken out in the House. We in the Green Party are supporting this bill because citizens need to be able to trust the Government they elect. The Official Information Act is a critical check on the powers of the executive and how Ministers Associate Ministers and—when this bill passes—parliamentary under-secretaries exercise the powers that Parliament has given them under the law.The Official Information Act when it was passed in 1982 was a landmark piece of legislation because it was going against the prevailing ethos of the time which was about official secrets. Its major purpose is to progressively increase the availability of official information so that the people of New Zealand can participate more effectively in both the making of law and policy and the administration of that law and policy. It also promotes the accountability of Ministers and officials. So it was really surprising in the first reading that Government members were opposing Adrian Rurawhe’s bill with the extension to parliamentary under-secretaries.We have seen in the submissions that the Government Administration Committee received universal support for the bill. As the Law Commission said in its submission: “The principle at stake is simple: Parliamentary Under-Secretaries perform a role that would otherwise be performed by a Minister of the Crown and should therefore be subject to the same obligations of open and transparent government as Ministers established under the [Official Information Act].”Parliamentary under-secretaries are members of the executive although some disputed that in the first reading. Their appointment is authorised by the Constitution Act and they can exercise the powers and functions that Ministers delegate to them subject to certain constraints. The Cabinet Manual recognises that they are part of the executive and are bound by the principle of collective responsibility in the same way that other members of the executive are.Mr Foster-Bell said that the National Government believed in having transparent and open Government and I would agree with my colleague Denis O’Rourke that you could have fooled us. We hope that National’s change of heart on this bill will also lead to a change of heart in how it actually applies the Official Information Act because we have seen under that Act major delays in the release of information by Ministers large redactions and a huge increase in complaints to the Office of the Ombudsmen in terms of requests to investigate the failure to release information and in terms of the delays. In 2014-15 the Office of the Ombudsmen received more than 12000 complaints and that was the second highest in its 33-year history. There were over 6000 complaints in the first 6 months of 2015-16. So we would like to see that same change that Government members have taken on the bill then applied to the actual application of the Act.This is only a small step to increasing the accountability of the executive and the hallmark of this Government has actually been to significantly increase the powers of Ministers. It has given Ministers much greater power to override local democracy. In the Resource Legislation Amendment Bill it can tell councils what provisions can be included in their plans and what cannot and it can potentially pull provisions from those plans. These are things that former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer has called a constitutional outrage.We have seen under this Government regional democracy not restored in Canterbury and the health board in Otago and Southland still has Minister-appointed commissioners so this Government has increased ministerial power rather than reduced it. This bill is a tiny step to actually making the powers of the executive slightly more accountable and more transparent. We congratulate the member on his bill and the Government Administration Committee on its consideration of the bill and the major effort it has made in ensuring that submitters were able to persuade Government members to change their stance on the bill.But I would say that I look forward to the presiding officer ruling out of scope a number of the amendments that Mr Seymour is planning to bring in relation to ridiculous things such as bringing the parliamentary press gallery within the scope of the bill. It highlights ACT’s lack of understanding of how our constitution works and how the Official Information Act works. Thank you.