English Bill: Appointments — OmbudsmanText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeEnglish Bill: Appointments — Ombudsman[Sitting date: 11 October 2007. Volume:642;Page:12310. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National): I stand to wholeheartedly support the Government motion and to join with the Government in recognising the long service of David McGee. I congratulate him on his appointment to the Office of the Ombudsmen.I support everything Dr Cullen said. Dr Cullen would be acknowledged as being probably one of the few parliamentarians who has a long and deep knowledge of the procedure of Parliament so he is an expert acknowledging the superiority of another expert in David McGee. That is a compliment in itself.As a measure of David McGee’s length of service I tell members that he has had 33 years in the Office of the Clerk. He has served under six Prime Ministers—Lange Palmer Moore Bolger Shipley and Clark—some of whom have lasted longer than others. He has also served under eight Speakers. Just to remind Parliament how far back that goes there is yourself Madam Speaker; Jonathan Hunt; Doug Kidd; Peter Tapsell; Robin Gray; Kerry Burke; Gerard Wall; and going back to Sir Basil Arthur. If there was ever a collection of people who had the combination of idiosyncrasy as well as political understanding it is that line-up of Speakers. Though I was not present in the room for any discussions between the Clerk and any of those individual politicians I know from watching David McGee in action that at all times he would have been politely directional when it was required and totally professional in his opinions and advice.Dr Cullen remarked that sometimes the Clerk has been the only person in the House who has kept his head. I think that is David McGee’s outstanding characteristic. Not only does he have a sufficient grip of complex constitutional and parliamentary issues that he has published three editions ofParliamentary Practice in New Zealand—which is far and away the most authoritative source on these matters in New Zealand and probably close to the most authoritative source on these matters in the Commonwealth—but also he has the personal disposition that has allowed him to be thecalm professional in this political pressure cooker day after day week after week and as it has turned out decade after decade.As Dr Cullen pointed out it was David McGee who shepherded this Parliament through the changes to MMP. I am very pleased that we had with us someone of exactly the sort that Dr Cullen described—someone who understood the traditions conventions and philosophy of this Parliament. In my view David McGee enabled this institution to survive the design of the idealists who were behind the MMP system. I think some of them imagined that MMP would transform politics; it was never going to. David McGee helped us to find the right balance between change that reflected the public mood and the requirements of the new system with at the same time managing that instinctive balance of rules flexibility and understanding of our flawed humanity that makes this institution work from day to day.He exercised judgment reasonableness and in my view some vision. It is difficult particularly for someone in a procedural job to understand that things can and should change. Changes have happened in this Parliament that I did not like and that I am sure David McGee did not like but he was able to see what was required to ensure that the institution maintained its credibility and did not lose its past when our electoral system changed. I thank him for that.I also thank him for advice he gave me in my role as leader of a political party and occasionally at other times when I have required it. I like the way that he does not really humour politicians too much. When a politician goes down to see him he is pretty straightforward. Often a politician goes to see the Clerk only when something really matters which means that he or she is in a state of some excitement about some wrong that has been done or about some procedural opportunity the politician thinks he or she has found that no one else has found. David McGee stripped down the arguments very quickly sometimes in a matter of a few minutes. One went away with the best advice one could get and sometimes slightly calmed down by his reasonableness.We wish David McGee well in his transition to Ombudsman. If I were to give him just one piece of advice as a new Ombudsman—which of course he may not need and may not take any notice of whatsoever—it is that between himself and others he should use his thorough background in the political and parliamentary system to give us some advice about the Official Information Act. The Act is pretty old legislation by our standards and the Ombudsmen’s office is now in a constant state of wrangling between the Opposition and Government about how the Act should be used. Some of the Act is simply quite dated. It has no provisions to deal with electronic information. That is one contribution that David McGee could make to the ongoing process of executive accountability which is the primary function of Parliament.We wish him well. I just hope he does not get bored over there. I know that we are generally a humble lot but I think we have made his life pretty exciting. That is why he has stayed for 33 years. We do things that are unpredictable we try to change the rules and we are allowed to write our own rules. I do not think there would have been too many days when he has come to the office and gone home thinking it was not worth it. So I say to David: “Please stay interested; don’t get bored.” I hope that we see the extent of the contribution he has made here to this Parliament now made to the Office of the Ombudsmen.