Chauvel Charles: Appointments — Ombudsman 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chauvel Charles: Appointments — Ombudsman 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7405. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHARLES CHAUVEL (Labour) 
: 
 As the Leader of the House observed we recently commemorated on the motion of his deputy the 50th anniversary of the Office of the Ombudsmen I think Mr Brownlee not Office of the Auditor-General but an equally important office of Parliament. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: Sorry—I’ll correct the  
Hansard 
. 
CHARLES CHAUVEL 
: Yes and no doubt the  
Hansard 
 will be corrected in due course. 
It is important that we recognise that the Office of the Ombudsmen is an important one and I think everybody in the House in joining in this motion to advise the Governor-General as to this appointment would agree that Mr Paterson follows in the fine tradition of the many distinguished office holders who have served in the office. 
The Leader of the House mentioned David McGee QC. Many of us in the House have had personal experience of his assistance in his former role as Clerk of this House prior to his assumption of the office of Ombudsman. He has in turn performed in a distinguished fashion in that office. It will be a shame to see him leave but it is reassuring to see that he is to be replaced with somebody of the calibre of Ron Paterson. 
Ron Paterson was a long-serving academic at Auckland University. He currently holds the position of Professor of Health Law and Policy there. He was the New Zealand Health and Disability Commissioner for 10 years from 2000 and I think it is fair to say that he restored the credibility of that office after his predecessor rather failed to live up to the early promise that the office held out to consumers of health and disability services. It is therefore particularly pleasing that somebody who has that track record will be moving into a broadly similar position requiring similar skills and attributes as Mr Paterson has. 
 Ron Paterson taught me commercial law at the University of Auckland in 1987 but I do not hold him responsible for any of my subsequent errors in that field. His subsequent move to specialise in health law typified by the position that he held in the Office of the Health and Disability Commissioner and also as Deputy Director-General of Safety and Regulation in the Ministry of Health prior to that and his many publications in this field indicate that he brings to the Office of the Ombudsmen not only the skills and the intelligence that are required but also a good deal of knowledge of the way in which the public sector works. That of course will be vital to the good performance of his role. 
A final word about the importance of the Office of the Ombudsmen. We are all aware that the office has recently had to make it clear that it needs to have adequate resourcing and funds to do its job. My colleague Shane Jones earlier this year via a member’s bill suggested a model analogous to that applying to the Crown Law Office where essentially the department or entity that the Office of the Ombudsmen is examining ought to bear the costs of that examination in order to try to find some sort of sustainable funding model for the office going forward. The House rejected that idea but I think we do have to always bear in mind the need to ensure that this one of Parliament’s most important watchdogs is always appropriately resourced and where it is not we need to take action to ensure that it is. 
I think the other important thing that we must bear in mind when we are considering any matter touching upon this Office of Parliament is whether or not its powers are adequate. We are in an age where information privacy and security are very much at the forefront of everybody’s minds. It is timely I think to consider particularly in light of the recent work of the Law Commission whether the office does have adequate powers to ensure compliance with the principles of the Official Information Act and the freedom of information statutes. Certainly for the Labour Opposition that will be a policy priority in terms of the pledges we make in the election in 2014 whenever it occurs. 
With those concluding words we certainly join with the Leader of the House and I anticipate other members in wishing Mr Paterson and Greg all the best for the next 5 years.