Beaumont Carol: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Beaumont Carol: State Sector Management Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 09 December 2010. Volume:669;Page:16273. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CAROL BEAUMONT (Labour) 
: 
 I rise to speak on Part 1 of the State Sector Management Bill in relation to the merger of the Ministry of Research Science and Technology and the Foundation for Research Science and Technology and the creation of a Ministry of Science and Innovation. As other colleagues have said we support this provision and believe it to be in line with our support for innovation. We are concerned though that this by itself will not make the huge difference that we need in this country. A merger is not a plan and this Government has failed to show real commitment in the area of innovation. 
I want to talk specifically about clauses 17 18 and 19. These are the clauses that relate to the employees of these organisations. Whenever we look at structural change like this it is very important that we consider the implications for the people who work in those organisations. These are people with families who work very hard at their jobs. I understand that the people who work at the Ministry of Research Science and Technology and the Foundation for Research Science and Technology are well-regarded people who are committed to the work they do. I know that the organisation that speaks on behalf of those employees the Public Service Association has acknowledged in its submission to the select committee that its members at the Ministry of Research Science and Technology are generally supportive of the objectives of the merger and welcome the opportunity to work in a new organisation mandated to lead Government and sector work on science and innovation. So it is a good start that the employees can see that it is valuable. They are also not resistant to change and their union makes that point but they urged the Education and Science Committee to take account of the fact that change is difficult and stressful that it can be demoralising and that those issues must be mitigated by good process and good leadership. I hope that that has been taken on board by the Minister. I would be very interested to hear from the Minister if he was listening as to whether he considers that it is important to provide and encourage that good leadership in a process of staff change. 
As I say clauses 17 18 and 19 outline the rights of employees in these organisations. It appears that they are reasonably comprehensive and will allow for a smooth transfer of employees from both the foundation and the ministry into the new organisation the Ministry of Science and Innovation. I am very pleased to see that but there is a need for some certainty in these organisations. Certainly the people who work at the Ministry of Research Science and Technology have already been going through a period of significant uncertainty. I understand that last year 50 percent of the Ministry of Research Science and Technology’s first second and third-tier managers left and that none were replaced on a permanent basis. That takes me to my next point which is that this new organisation which we support is expecting a lot more. There are a whole lot of new things to be done and that is positive but the expectation of this Government is that this will be done with less staff. So there is a significant reduction in staffing— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Fewer staff. 
CAROL BEAUMONT 
: Sorry fewer staff. I thank my colleague the Hon Trevor Mallard very much. He is on the ball even at this time on a Saturday morning. Fewer staff will be expected to deliver more and that is an important point. We need to make sure that we are not putting levels of pressure on people that would undermine the very good intentions of this new ministry. 
One of the very interesting points in clause 19 I want to talk about is subclause (3) which is about the avoidance of doubt. It states that: “the employment of a transferred employee … does not—(a) constitute new employment for the purposes of the KiwiSaver Act” and that is good but most important paragraph (b) states that it does not “treat that employee as a new employee for the purposes of the Employment Relations Act”. Many people in this Chamber may not understand the significance of that although I hope that at least the people on the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee do. It is of course that these employees unlike many other New Zealand employees will not be prone to dismissal in the first 90 days of their new employment. They will retain their rights as employees. They will retain the right to take an unjustified dismissal case should that unfortunate situation ever arise for them. I thought that it was worth noting that at least this group of employees will not suffer from the consequences of the very poor employment relations changes that have been made.