Andersen GinnyVIRGINIA ANDERSEN (Labour): Kia ora. He mihi mahana ki Te Whare i Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēnā tātou katoa.[Warm greetings to the House in Māori Language Week greetings greetings greetings to all.]It's a privilege to stand and speak on the State Sector and Crown Entities Reform Bill. As a member of the Governance and Administration Committee it was also a really interesting process to hear the seven submissions from parts of Government. One submission in particular which I'll pay reference to was from the Law Commission which made a very valuable contribution. It opened my eyes to the value of having detailed scrutiny from outside entities looking at the legislation and providing improvements.The improvements made to this bill have been done at the select committee level and that is really good to see. In terms of what Crown entities are they very much provide a public face to the Government and they carry out a very wide range of functions. Because they are not part of the Public Service it is also important that they should still remain aligned to the work that the Government does and remain consistent across those areas. That's where this bill has helped to bring the pay range in particular of senior members from Crown entities into line with the rest of the State sector.I think in particular that consistency is important for the appointment process of chief executives if we want to strengthen the public's trust and confidence in the way that the Government does its business. When we look at Crown entities it's very important that they remain connected and aligned with the remainder of the State sector and so this bill has set out to do that and has indeed done a good job.The nub or the crux of where the discussion at select committee lay was in trying to get that balance right—trying to get that balance right between getting the right person for the job the person that's best suited for that chief executive role but at the same time as this Government has made increasingly clear not to pay excessive amounts to chief executives which has been done in the past. In that it's been an interesting discussion at select committee acknowledging that part of being in the Public Service is that we have skilled and experienced people who serve in the Public Service. They are motivated by many things and remuneration is just one of those many things in life that can motivate any individual.So getting that balance right was an interesting discussion. I'd like to acknowledge the chairmanship of Brett Hudson of the select committee for doing an excellent job of being able to ask good thorough questions from those submitting groups and to arrive at a good balance between those two areas of making sure there is the right person for the job but also making sure that we're not paying excessive amounts to chief executives.I would like to acknowledge the fact that the changes that this bill has done in particular have enabled the right balance to be struck to make sure that in those key areas—where we've seen change in terms of how those decisions are made and also how inquiries are carried out—a bill has been developed that strengthens the Public Service and gives the public greater trust and confidence that there is transparency in the way that Crown entities are run alongside other Public Service entities. I would like to acknowledge all those who submitted and all those public servants that spent many hours making these changes and I commend this bill to the House.Bill read a second time.