Strange JamieJAMIE STRANGE (Labour): Madam Speaker thank you for the opportunity to take a call on the Public Service Legislation Bill. I'd also like to begin by acknowledging the Minister the Hon Chris Hipkins for bringing this bill to the House. I have heard him speak a number of times around the Public Service sector working closer together rather than working in silos—coming together and basically working together which certainly makes it better for the members of the public. I'd like to begin by just sort of outlining a story that I'm sure many of us have heard from constituents who have been to our offices. The story goes like this: if somebody has a certain need they may contact an agency—for example Work and Income. They will give all their details to Work and Income and they'll work through a process with Work and Income. Then they would need to get in touch with Housing New Zealand on a related issue to their conversation with Work and Income. When they get to Housing New Zealand they'll have to relitigate all the information that they've given to Work and Income. Then they may need to talk to the IRD or there might be an ACC aspect. And we're talking about a person's life here that has a number of different aspects to it and if that person needs to engage with a number of agencies around different aspects of their life it's much more helpful and much more better—well it's much better for that person if the agencies are working together particularly on the information they have. So the first point I'd like to highlight is the aspect of how this bill unifies the public sector—having them working together rather than working in silos. The important aspect here is that this Government is taking a collective approach to our public sector. Rather than looking at one aspect of the public sector here and another aspect over here we're looking at it as a whole and at how can the public sector serve New Zealanders.There was an excellent example last year of the public sector working together in the Wellbeing Budget where we had 10 agencies that worked together on the family violence and sexual violence aspect of the Budget. It was called a joint venture. The agencies worked together to put their Budget bids in and they are now working together to administer the money that was provided from that successful Budget bid. So this piece of legislation basically looks to embed that philosophy of the agencies working together. The second point I'd like to raise is that I'd like to thank the public servants for the work they did. Last year the Government instituted core State sector public servants receiving at least a living wage of $20.55. But the aspect is around future-focused leadership. We live in a world that's constantly changing—it's constantly evolving. Services are moving to an online model at times but the question is: how can we provide a high level of service that at times may not be face to face? Now I know for a lot of people they do prefer face to face but we do have the aspect of online available to us. But how can the agencies work together to deliver a service that is diverse and that reaches a wide range of people whether those people be urban or whether those people be rural? And future-focused leadership is important in this area and leadership from all the agencies working together to provide that service. I also was not aware—as the Green member Gareth Hughes said—that the 1988 legislation of the Public Service did not mention at all the Treaty of Waitangi. So I am also very pleased to see that the Treaty of Waitangi is embedded in this legislation and that there is a focus on greater involvement of Māori in the Public Service and also recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi as our founding document in everything that the Public Service does. Just a couple of other quick points—this legislation allows public servants to move between agencies more easily. That links to the aspect around a de-silo—if that is a word—removing the silos that have existed; a wedding of the agencies so that people can move between the agencies. And I think that's an excellent thing because people will take experience from one agency to another agency and vice versa from one agency to another. And people will be rubbing shoulders with people from different agencies and basically having a common understanding. So an excellent piece of legislation; I'd like to commend the Minister and commend this bill to the House.