King AnnetteHon ANNETTE KING (Labour—Rongotai): As nobody else is taking the call I think I will. It is good news that the Minister of State Services is now taking the issue seriously. She stood in the House today in a very solemn manner and told us how she was taking this matter seriously that she would consider" changes to the whistleblower legislation. I say to the Minister: "Don't just consider it. Put on record the time frame for making changes to this long-overdue reform of this Act."It has taken a long time. I just want to begin by congratulating Sue Moroney who pursued this issue. I have listened to some of the interjections across the House and I know it has not been popular with the Government that Sue has pursued this with some vigour over almost 2 years. I know it is not popular but that is the role of a good Opposition member—a member who is given information—Jonathan Young: And you guys are dumping her.Hon ANNETTE KING: —who does not let go of it until there is some action. I am sorry Mr Young you could have done the same but it was left to an Opposition member to raise this issue continually to be ridiculed for raising it but eventually to get—Jonathan Young: Who ridiculed her?Hon ANNETTE KING: Oh I heard the ridiculing.Jonathan Young: Not our committee—not our committee. Come on Annette.Hon ANNETTE KING: It might not have been you Mr Young but I heard it across the House because people did not like the issue being raised.It seems to me there is a common approach we often get in these issues and that is for the Government to take so long before it will take notice of an issue. Those members bury their heads they try to bury the issue—and we have had many examples of that over the last few weeks—and they do not do anything until the pressure is so great that they are forced into taking action.I do not know why we cannot see a more proactive approach. What is there to lose by a Government saying: "Here is an issue. Let us look at it. Let's see what lies behind it."? When a Government does not do that particularly when it comes to the Public Service I believe it then demeans the very public servants that work for it by not being open and transparent. I believe that we have an excellent Public Service. Both the member for Hutt South and I have been Ministers of State Services. We understand the Act we understand the obligations and we know the quality of our Public Service in New Zealand. I think it is sad when their reputation is besmirched by a bad apple in the barrel and that bad apple not being identified early and not being held to account. So when I look at my time as Minister of State Services I put a lot of store in the State Services Commissioner and their role in these matters.I have got some questions for the Ministers of State Services from back then in 2013—that was the Hon Jonathan Coleman—and then today's Minister of State Services Paula Bennett. What information did those Ministers receive? When did they receive the information that there was a problem with this woman Joanne Harrison a woman who has proved to be manipulative and to be ripping off the taxpayers of New Zealand to line her own pockets? When were those Ministers advised? How were they advised? What actions did the Ministers of State Services—back in 2013 and again now—take in relation to this?When you look at this sad sorry story I think the thing that really upsets me is how the workers who were made redundant—moved on—were treated. I mean imagine being restructured right on Christmas. How mean can you be? They did not need to be stood down then; they were stood down months before they had to be and then they had to train their temporary replacements. Having been told that they did not have a job and told they had to finish before Christmas they were then told they had to train their replacements. What sort of treatment was that? I would have thought that the Secretary for Transport would have thought that was a pretty mean way to treat former public servants—people who had given many years of service.As Peter Hughes our now State Services Commissioner said—and I am so pleased Peter Hughes is there; he is a fine man and a very good State Services Commissioner—the staff suffered "humiliating" reprisals due to their raising of concerns about Harrison. It is time for the review of the Protected Disclosures Act—it is neither protecting people nor allowing disclosure."