Robertson H V Ross: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General 
Robertson H V Ross: Offices of Parliament — Address to Governor-General 
[Volume:653;Page:2600] 
H V ROSS ROBERTSON (Labour—Manukau East) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker kia ora tatou. No reira te Whare tena koutou tena koutou tena koutou katoa. E nga iwi e nga reo e nga hau e wha. 
[ 
Greetings to you Mr Assistant Speaker and to us assembled. So to the House greetings to you greetings to you and greetings to you all. Acknowledgments to the people the languages and the four winds 
.] 
When one looks at the make-up of the Officers of Parliament Committee one sees that the members certainly come from the four corners of the political spectrum. The Labour Opposition will support this appropriation. As deputy chair of the select committee I find it a challenging and rewarding position to be in. There is much experience and expertise on this committee. There are various luminaries on this committee. [ 
Interruption 
] Mr Henare is not one them I am sorry. But we certainly have some very good people on the committee. We have the Hon Dr Lockwood Smith the Hon Steve Chadwick the Hon Sir Roger Douglas Craig Foss Dr Kennedy Graham and Chris Tremain who has been replaced by the Hon Peter Dunne. There is a very good set of individuals on that committee. 
The Officers of Parliament Committee report contains a summary of the appropriations and details on each agency. There were relatively few changes to the budgets and the report makes them quite clear. 
Firstly we recommend two main changes to the appropriations and baselines for the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General—an increase of $17303. But the office also sought some additional funding; it sought another $50000 for the cost of audit services for smaller entities. The committee did not support the provision of additional funding. 
Regarding the additional funding request to cover the costs of providing audit services to smaller entities these entities included cemetery trusts and reserve boards of which there are currently 145 in New Zealand. In considering this the committee looked at the issue of accountability and at ways in which the job might be better serviced. The report states: “The office said that while there is nothing wrong with the current auditing and financial standards applying these standards to smaller entities can be difficult.” The Controller and Auditor-General informed us that he was now working with the Ministry of Economic Development and the Accounting Standards Review Board. So the office is identifying areas in which improvements can be made. We are looking at increasing efficiency and increasing productivity in this particular organisation. We said: “While we appreciate that the office has difficulties in providing audit services to smaller identities we do not support the provision of additional funding at this time. We note that the office will have to deliver its activities within its existing budget.” 
There is also the issue of the co-location of offices. If we look at the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General and Audit New Zealand we see that these two organisations are looking at coming together as a way of conserving costs and performing better. The Office of the Controller and Auditor-General estimates that additional capital of $4.27 million is needed—quite a considerable sum of money. We have said that the office should recognise that in the current financial climate requests for additional capital should be considered very seriously. We have asked the office to focus on keeping additional expenses to the absolute minimum. 
Further we have the Office of the Ombudsmen. The original appropriation was for three Ombudsmen but we have been informed that there is no need at this stage for a third Ombudsman. Therefore we agree with that particular consideration. Kia ora.