Chadwick Steve: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Chadwick Steve: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 09 December 2010. Volume:669;Page:16277. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) 
: 
 Part 2 of the State Sector Management Bill really concerns us here in Opposition. It is very clear that Cabinet Ministers in Government have dropped the ball on an incredibly important aspect of our cultural and heritage sector. In fact my colleague Grant Robertson just talked about this shift of where we plonk the National Library and what we do with the Alexander Turnbull Library. It would have probably fitted better in a structure of the Ministry of Arts Culture and Heritage not sitting in the huge Government Department of Internal Affairs. The Minister of Internal Affairs the Hon Nathan Guy is looking at me thinking gosh that might have been quite a good idea and asking the Government why it did not think of that. But at the financial review of the Department of Internal Affairs I asked some questions of the chief executive. He is new keen and determined to provide improved customer services—more efficient services that are accountable to the public. But he looked a bit perplexed about why the entities were to be merged. The justification we heard at the select committee was that a new information technology transformation was happening in Government departments. We heard that the National Library and Archives will be digitised and new technologies will be used and that the emergence of those new technologies drove the decision which is simply nuts. 
I reiterate that if Minister Finlayson had been watching all the Cabinet papers that were going through the hands of Minister Ryall and Nathan Guy he would have stood up because he knows and he would have advocated that the process should stop and that a fundamental error was being made in this component. Minister Finlayson has dropped the ball on our heritage and cultural sector and the importance of the repository of national collections. 
The National Library was established in 1965. It brought together the General Assembly Library the Alexander Turnbull Library and the National Library. Some of these functions in New Zealand have great historical significance and date back to the 1850s. On Part 2 we seek assurances that the role of the National Librarian the delegations of the National Librarian and the Alexander Turnbull Library will all continue. But for goodness’ sake the Minister in the chair knows how ministries work and this is becoming a superministry. These incredibly important functions that should be stand-alone functions are put into third-tier divisions of this new monster Department of Internal Affairs with no lines to the Minister unless my colleague Grant Robertson’s amendment is passed today. I urge members of the House to at least consider that amendment that allows the Chief Archivist and the National Librarian to have reporting lines to the Minister. We need to open up those doors so they can take those unique elements of the National Library service not just to the chief executive who has his door open but for goodness’ sake directly to the Minister. I think there are very substantial amendments that we need to look at. 
I believe also that National has forgotten—this issue came up and is in our minority report—about the damage to the reputation of the Alexander Turnbull Library. The holdings of that library are private collections that New Zealanders who had a great love of books our history and our collected stories donated to the Alexander Turnbull Library. Those holdings will now sit under the auspices of the Department of Internal Affairs. That is absolutely simply crazy and it defies logic. Judith Collins laughs but I am sure that in her family history there will be people who probably would like to have confidence that if they donate great collections of books to the Alexander Turnbull Library for goodness’ sake they will not be under the management and executive function of the Chief Executive of the Department of Internal Affairs. It is absolutely stupid. 
I know what happened here: the Government looked for efficiencies economies of scale and digitalisation opportunities because there will need to be digitalisation of a lot of our material held. But that is not where this department the National Library and the role of the chief librarian should sit. It is an insult to those professionals. It is no wonder that those professionals who have great dignity and intelligence feel insulted by what is happening to them and to their passion for collections of great significance. They will find themselves in the Department of Internal Affairs which is an awful name. I ask what that name says about telling about our stories and our unique identity as New Zealanders both to children in the country and to those internationally: “Go to the Department of Internal Affairs when you come to New Zealand. There’s an Alexander Turnbull Library run by the Department of Internal Affairs.” It is an insult and it is no wonder that those professionals are quietly making decisions about their own future which will delight Tony Ryall because he wants those vacancies to occur in the name of efficiency. He forgets what he is losing in institutional memory and the experience of amazingly qualified people who are seen internationally as great leaders of managing such repositories of information. 
This is a shambles. This is what happened in Canada. The Minister in the chair should listen to the fact that when we looked at international examples we saw that when there was a merger in Canada—because we always look to similar things that are happening and where great ideas are happening internationally—there was a decline in services. I ask whether the Minister really looked and saw the impact of that. He was actually beaten by Minister Tony Ryall who said: “This is what we are going to do. Have I got an idea for you! We are just going to make a superministry here. Now who should we suck into this ministry called the Department of Internal Affairs? Not Creative New Zealand or the Ministry of Arts Culture and Heritage.” That is where Archives and the National Library should have sat. 
Hon Darren Hughes 
: I am sure this Minister boldly stood up for his department. 
Hon STEVE CHADWICK 
: No he did not. He did not advocate at all. But do not worry because here we are in Part 2 looking after the delegations of the National Librarian and the functions of the National Librarian. Clause 27 relates to the continuation of the Alexander Turnbull Library. “Do not worry New Zealanders it will still be there.”! Great! Third tier in the Department of Internal Affairs—what an insult! What an insult to the Chief Librarian of the Alexander Turnbull Library. 
I am afraid this bill will—[ 
Interruption 
] Yes it is look at clause 28. It is an insult. This bill has resulted in a deep vein of resentment against this Government and the high-handed and arrogant way it views public servants as just bureaucrats whom it can shuffle around on the decks and not be worried about the impact for $165000 of savings every year. It says: “Have we got the answer for you for the super-service on archival material and library material!”. That is a disgrace. It has insulted professionals in New Zealand. It will not result in a better service for the public. It subsumes those who have developed independence and professional integrity into a super ministry. That will have a very negative impact on this Government when it comes to the election next year.