Coates BarryBARRY COATES (Green): I rise to address the Committee as a result of the reviews undertaken by the Government Administration Committee and in particular I want to focus on one of the reviews which is of the State Services Commission. We do not I think often enough in this House talk about the processes of Government themselves. One of the issues that we addressed in this departmental review was to raise questions of the State Services Commissioner about the independence of the Public Service. Now this is important because of the unprecedented politicisation of our Public Service in recent years.We asked the State Services Commissioner what provisions there are to ensure that there is maintained independence and integrity of the Public Service. We need to ensure that there is not undue political pressure interference and bullying by Ministers. On page 454 is the answer from the commissioner and frankly the answers were not reassuring. There is the aim that political neutrality should be the cornerstone of the Public Service but we did not hear about what will actually make that happen. Just as one example we saw the disgraceful vilification of Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade officials just over a year ago with reports of micro-management bullying and blaming of civil servants. That is just one example from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We hear of other examples as well.The ethos of public service that we would like to ensure is part of the pride and the job satisfaction of every civil servant is being rapidly eroded. The report of the Controller and Auditor-General in the reflections on audits this year acknowledged this issue and said that there needed to be attention given to this. So as part of this agenda we have seen a huge rise in the number of political advisers. Their role is political spin. Their role is not neutrality.We have seen political appointments across quangos; we have seen boards councils and committees of universities of educational institutions of institutions across our society stacked full of political appointees. We are having the politicisation of a whole new level of quangos in our society and they wield tremendous amounts of power often without accountability mechanisms. We have seen Ministers deliberately withholding potentially embarrassing reports under the Official Information Act. We have seen secrecy in negotiations like trade agreements on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and even on an agreement like PACER-Plus which is apparently in the interests of the Pacific Island countries. But it is all kept secret.So what we are seeing is that the very principle of open government which should be at the heart of the work of this House is not being implemented. We have seen the abuse of political fund-raising and large political donations from recipients of visas issued under ministerial discretion. We need a proper code of conduct for MPs and we need rules on lobbyists. So the State Services Commission says that the public needs to have trust and confidence and that the Public Service should remain politically neutral. I say from my understanding that the public has totally lost confidence with the neutrality of the Public Service. They have lost confidence with the integrity of our political system. I can undertake that the Green Party if elected to Government will restore honesty in Government—that is so vital. Thank you.