Auchinvole Chris: Crown Entities Reform Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Auchinvole Chris: Crown Entities Reform Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 22 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2249. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE (National) 
: 
 It is with pleasure that I rise to speak in favour of this Crown Entities Reform Bill. I would like initially to acknowledge a few points that have been made by other speakers—in particular the Hon Trevor Mallard who mentioned he has concern about the Charities Act but in other ways is pretty supportive of the bill and indeed the most recent speaker from the Green Party Kevin Hague. I know that he has had a background in health and is very committed to it. I find it sad though that both speakers have said they will support the bill but not bits of it. I think that that is unfortunate even though there has been a good level of discussion at the Government Administration Committee.  
I note the point that Kevin Hague made about submitters not feeling they had sufficient time. It is a consequence I would suggest of changes of Government. I know there are several bills that have been thus affected. You would have to be more than an arithmetician to work out a system of overcoming that issue without compromising the new Government by the activities of the old. I think it is something that we do have to take into account. We certainly approached it from an advised point of view in this particular select committee. It was a point of discussion and we were able I think to achieve some additional responses from submitters.  
The bill provides us with an opportunity to greatly improve the effectiveness of the public sector by reducing the duplication of services and reducing the separation of costs. Indeed this phrase is not mine but it is one that I like: this Government is not about increasing public services but is about increasing services to the public from Government departments. I would have to say— 
Hon Christopher Finlayson 
: Sounds like yours. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: It sounds like mine? Thank you Mr Finlayson; I wish I had thought of it. Indeed it is something that I have always been keen on. I think this bill goes a long way to achieving that concentration of services to the public.  
But also it does something else and something that I have noticed since National began with its National-led Government. We have done bills on the environment and in other spheres where it produces a synergy for the Government departments that are involved. It brings together people of the same mind. They are not working in isolation; they are not working in silos. It stops the proliferation that occurred and I say it advisedly under the previous Labour-led Government. I understand that Labour believes in an expanded Public Service. It always has done and it probably always will whereas we do not. So we feel this bill is a responsible response to the situation of Public Service proliferation to reduce that and it is in keeping with the Government’s overall direction for the State sector and the Government’s aim of improving State sector performance. None of these changes has been made lightly and they have been made with a fairly thorough investigation before they went in.  
I join the previous speaker Kevin Hague in thanking the advisers that we had for the work they have done. I am proud to be the deputy chair of this particular select committee. It is a significant one which covers eight ministries and involves itself— 
Hon Member 
: Fun working with Ruth. 
CHRIS AUCHINVOLE 
: The Attorney says it must be fun working with the Hon Ruth Dyson and I have to say that she has a very open approach particularly to cooperating with committee members. She does have an intensified view of health services through I think her continued experience on health select committees. But as I say I am always interested when the speeches come out because they do not always reflect the unanimity or the degree of agreement that does occur during the discussion at committee level.  
I will just touch on a few aspects of this particular bill. It accomplishes particular goals. One is the creation of a new Health Promotion Agency which previous speakers have spoken at length about. It should be noted—and this is one of the concerns of the Alcohol Advisory Council—that the alcohol levy to the council will be continued as a preserve to be spent by the Health Promotion Agency on alcohol-related activities. In other words it is a centralised feature; it does not get dissipated. The centralisation of services will ensure that programmes are delivered at a high level removing duplicated expenses. Probably the most contentious issue is the change to the Charities Commission. I think that those who anticipate it the least will find that their anticipated problems do not occur to the extent that they expect them to and I would encourage them to wait until further in the debate and not to get too anxious about it.  
But I am heartened to hear levels of support from both sides of the House for the majority parts of this bill. I support it wholeheartedly and call on all members of the House to do the same as I am sure all members of the House will. Thank you Mr Speaker.