Hudson BrettBRETT HUDSON (National): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. It's a pleasure to rise in support of the State Sector and Crown Entities Reform Bill in this its first reading. It's interesting that we should be debating this today at this point in this term. I would like to acknowledge that this bill which we will support to first reading is going to one of the harder-working and more competent select committees and to paraphrase the old Toyota ad of course I would say that.But it's quite remarkable for a couple of reasons. The first one is it is not something that the now-governing parties actually campaigned upon in that election that was only a few months ago.Hon Shane Jones: I raise a point of order Madam Speaker. Can I direct you to consider the remarks as the member isolated only one select committee as being competent and the suggestion that others where members of the public are taking their submissions lack competence. Please correct that delinquency. BRETT HUDSON: Speaking to the point of order—DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don't need any further assistance.BRETT HUDSON: —I did say harder-working" not "hardest". DEPUTY SPEAKER: I did take it that there was a comparison and there was some conflict of interest expressed by the member as he is a member of that hard-working select committee.BRETT HUDSON: Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. At least I acknowledged that conflict of interest. So it was something that wasn't campaigned upon last year but even more interesting is that of all of the great visions they claimed and all of the great issues that sit upon New Zealand this bill which is something that is in the context of all of those great ideas—those supposed great ideas—is actually quite a small matter and one that pertains to be of some public interest but to quite a small number of individuals. It's quite interesting that it should hit the Order Paper now.The public can and will take from that that this is a Government that just a few months ago in Opposition had a whole lot to say about what it wanted to do but it had done absolutely no preparation to get ready for actually being in Government and doing work. So what we have instead is them working on initiatives that the previous Government had already put in train because it has been acknowledged and it is a simple fact of the matter that the previous Minister of State Services had asked that the processes be reviewed by the State Services Commissioner including and particularly around chief executive pay.So it's quite interesting that on 12 February in the post-Cabinet press conference the media asked the Prime Minister—and I quote—"Was any of the work on this legislation under way under the last Government? Prime Minister: "Well I don't think it was [then] in train was it?" Hon Chris Hipkins: "I don't think so. This was something that we picked up fairly early on in [the] broader discussions". Well the public's going to have to wonder if that particular terminological inexactitude was deliberate.It just actually shows the public that the Government has no substance and no work of its own and instead it is seeking to raise its own reputation in the eyes of the public by claiming the work that the previous Government had undertaken as work of its own. Well in actual fact the work the previous Government had undertaken are examples of the only decent things that this new Government has brought to the House. But I do commend this bill to the House."