Dunne Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 09 February 2016. Volume:711;Page:8763. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future): I want to begin by paying a tribute to the late Rt Hon Bob Tizard who died just a few weeks ago. I am one of the very few members in the House today who had the privilege of being here when he was a member. I see the Hon Annette King and I acknowledge her. I am sure she will agree with me that Bob gave the appearance of being permanently irascible. As someone once said he was the most balanced man in the House; he had chips on both shoulders. But that actually belied a considerable intellect terrific ability and a form of warmth that meant that he did have a very strong sense of compassion for the underdog.I think he was a parliamentarian of an era that we no longer have and I think it is important to pay tribute to people like that—to span in Parliament from Walter Nash through to Mike Moore as Prime Minister. As a parliamentary candidate he first stood in the 1951 waterfront election so I pay my tribute to him and express my sympathy to his family on their sad loss and my appreciation for one of his tremendous contribution to our country.The debate on the Prime Minister’s statement is a chance to talk about the direction that the country is heading in over the coming 12 months and it is very difficult to do that without reflecting upon the immediate past the last few days—the events at Waitangi. I want to say this: I believe that commemorating the events that happened on 6 February 1840 is extremely important and is foundational to understanding this country’s past and contributing to its future but I am also reminded of the words that Norman Kirk uttered at a time when the Waitangi commemoration first became a national holiday in 1973. He said that this is a day for all New Zealanders not just the people of Northland—for all New Zealanders—to celebrate the unique gifts we possess by virtue of the fact that we are New Zealanders. It seems to me that in the controversies that have surrounded the day almost interminably in recent years that phrase has been forgotten. Waitangi Day is for all New Zealanders. It is not for the hotheads. It is not for the activists. It is not for the protesters. It is for all New Zealanders to celebrate what it means to be a New Zealander.I think that means that if the Prime Minister feels it inappropriate to go so be it but I think then we need to look afresh at the nature of what goes on at Waitangi on Waitangi Day and the day beforehand. I for one do not accept the proposition that the best way to celebrate a national day is to protest. I do not believe in sweeping things under the carpet but I think that the idea that our national day is somehow less about celebrating who we are and more about protesting our differences has gone too far.Every year we have this debate and every year nothing happens. It may well therefore be time for the senior leadership in this House across the parties to get together and try to nut out a pathway forward that prevents us from being back here next year the year after and in years to come saying: “If only we had a national day that wasn’t marred by what went on at this most recent occasion.” In that respect I acknowledge Mr Joyce. I thought he handled a very unusual situation with considerable calm and pride and I guess we will wait and see whether John Oliver and co. followed what he had to say.I do think that the risk to New Zealand of not getting this right is that the sense of national cohesion that we all like to feel will be diminished. It may well be that the outcome is to have effectively two national days: a day we celebrate the commemoration of the signing of the Treaty and a day we set aside to be our national day. It may well be an event around Matariki or some other significant occasion in the year—I for one would scrap Queen’s Birthday and turn that into a national day for New Zealand—but I think that continuing as we are simply gets us into a position where more and more people each year will feel alienated and left out and simply want to get on with what comes next. I hope that there can be some constructive progress before we face this situation 12 months from now.I want to talk this afternoon about a very important aspect of the Government’s programme that sits under my portfolio of responsibilities. I think one of the big changes that this Government has made for the better has been the investment approach to the provision of public services—the fact that we actually seek to figure out what the cost of providing a service will be and what the gains to come from that will be before we simply plough money into it. The development of the Better Public Services result areas has been very important in that regard and I refer particularly to Result 10 which comes under my responsibility.Under Result 10 our ambition is to have 70 percent of the 10 most common Government services provided to New Zealanders carried out online by 2017. We are just under 50 percent at the moment and are tracking well towards that. That puts us in a very strong position internationally.I had the privilege last week of giving the annual digital leaders network lecture at the House of Commons in London and it was very interesting to see the high regard in which New Zealand is held for the progress that we have made in terms of the delivery of Government services in a way that is much more convenient to people. Most of us live our lives these days governed by these things—mobile phones. Most people do their banking their travel their insurance and a range of other transactions watching the television at night and they want to know more and more why their interaction with Government in terms of Government services cannot be carried out in the same way.We have already made a start. The recent change to 10-year passports has seen the rate of passport renewal online go up by almost half from somewhere in the low 40s in terms of percentages to somewhere in the mid-60snow. People are getting used to the idea that you can do things online. We have a very high rate already of tax returns being filed online but there are many other things we can do to suit a citizen’s convenience—to tailor Government services in a way that meets the citizen’s needs rather than the rigid structures of Government. That is quite a radical change.I am very proud that New Zealand is part of what is known now as the “D5”—the Digital 5 the five most digitally advanced Governments in the world. It is a very eclectic mix: Estonia which leads because of its particular circumstances post the Soviet invasion when it literally rebuilt its entire bureaucratic system online; Britain and New Zealand similar sorts of States making good policy progress; and Korea and Israel for whom the pre-determinant of better online services has been national security. But the Digital 5 is becoming more some form of international working together and cooperation than just a talk shop.We have had a couple of meetings over the last 2 years. We are now planning to expand that process of interaction between our officials to make sure that the sorts of things we are doing both gel with what our citizens require and also create opportunities for our IT industry locally. It is far more of an issue in Britain than here because of its much larger size and capacity but there is scope for doing that here—for bringing Government and industry closer together in terms of the way in which we progress the development of key services for New Zealanders. That will be a big priority this year. It is consistent with the transformational approach that this Government is taking to the provision of services and it is in line with what public expectations seek. Most people when you talk to them expect to be able to make contact with Government online expect to be able to do their business that way and enjoy a measure of frustration when they find that they cannot.I want to end with a little anecdote. When I was the Minister of Revenue one day the geeks in the department came to me on a Friday afternoon and said: “We’ve just developed this little app that shows you your student loan balance online.” It was about 3 o’clock on a Friday afternoon. We had just launched it. Saturday morning I was in my electorate office and a constituent came in complaining about student loan repayments so I smiled and said: “I can help you here. We’ve got this little app that now does all these things and shows you exactly where things are.” She looked at me stone-faced and she said: “I know but I can’t pay online can I?”.The point of that story is this: the app was barely 12 hours old launched without fanfare. This person already knew it was there and knew what it did not do. I think that is the challenge we have got to keep in front of us. It is not so much what we can do but that the customer’s expectation is always for that step more. As we go through this transformation process Governments are going to have to put themselves in a position where they can meet that “Yes but what I want is this.” type of argument. So that is going to be an important priority this year.I simply conclude by welcoming all members back to the House. I welcome Maureen Pugh to the House and I am sure we will all have many robust debates over the next 12 months.