Clark David: State Sector Amendment Bill Public Finance Amendment Bill (No 2) Crown Entities Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeClark David: State Sector Amendment Bill Public Finance Amendment Bill (No 2) Crown Entities Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 10 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:11943. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]State Sector Amendment BillPublic Finance Amendment Bill (No 2)Dr DAVID CLARK (Labour—Dunedin North):I rise to support this legislation arising from the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill. The Labour Party will be supporting this legislation through the House. We do have some reservations. We certainly opposed the original bill at its first reading but changes forced at the Finance and Expenditure Committee by the State sector unions and by Labour have averted disaster for Government workers who were set to lose their redundancy entitlements and employment rights under the previous version of the bill. As I say Labour members and members of the Public Service Association (PSA) and the Council of Trade Unions are satisfied now with what has been achieved so we are now much more comfortable with this legislation.It was heavily amended in the select committee and the work of the committee is important. So I congratulate the members who worked on the legislation itself. Those negotiations have been fruitful and it is important that this kind of legislation is able to succeed Governments—go from one Government to another—and preserve stability in the sector so that people who work in the sector have some kind of surety around their employment provisions. That leads to a more settled sector and gives the people who work there the ability to focus on the job at hand rather than worrying about whethertheir conditions are going to be axed as was proposed by the Government in the first version of the bill. So my congratulations go particularly to the PSA and the Council of Trade Unions on their involvement and on what has been achieved through the select committee process.The previous Labour member who spoke David Parker drew attention to the issue of leadership and said that if you do not have good leadership by Ministers in policy terms unfortunately this legislation will achieve nothing. This legislation is there to support good policy and the implementation of good policy. Indeed that is the role of the State sector. It is there to challenge Ministers to provide free and frank advice and also to support the implementation of policy that is put forward by Ministers. We over this side of the House are not confident that this will lead to great policy by the current Government. If it has the wrong policies or no policy or no plan at all no amount of fine-tuning as to how departments deliver that absence of policy or that bad policy will help create a better New Zealand.This Government certainly has a poor record in that regard. John Key is on record as stating that he thinks that Kiwis are paying about the right amount for power. The current policy that is in place is being fine-tuned by this Government but if it is the wrong policy no amount of fine-tuning will fix it. Labour on the other hand has put forward a policy that would see the sector reformed and that would see the creation of an entity called NZ Power which would make sure that Kiwi power bills for the average family went down by around $300 a year and would put a lid on future price rises.This kind of policy could be implemented more effectively with this legislation which ensures that the agencies work together in a productive way. It strengthens the role of the State Services Commissioner in ensuring that Government agencies work collaboratively as a system. In fact for the first time the commissioner’s role is set out in legislation. In some ways it is a wonder that that has never happened before. Certainly across the sector it has been asked by many agencies what exactly the role of the State Services Commission is and this is now laying it out in a way that shows the kinds of levers that the commission has to ensure that there are clear lines of accountability within the sector that there is transparency in reporting that there are sanctions and rewards—and certainly the commissioner is responsible for making sure that the correct sanctions and rewards are in place for leaders of departments—that the appropriate policy-provider splits are in place and that other public sector management principles are observed. This legislation makes sure that the State Service is more effective that there are the right safeguards in place and that the chief executives have the power to delegate statutory functions as appropriate.The new organisational arrangement is also covered in the legislation. The departmental agency as a new organisation will be interesting to watch. We will see how that plays out and whether that delivers something more than what we currently have in place.But to return to the point there is no way that this legislation will create good policy. It cannot create good policy; that is for Governments to do. That is for them to campaign on. That is for them to put out in the open and to have tested. The public may be convinced that there are advantages in certain policies. They will elect a Government. This legislation will give the opportunity for that Government to then implement stuff effectively.The leadership of this Government has been ineffectual in for example getting the economy back on track. We know that this Government here present in the Chamber—and Mr Lotu-Iiga is concerned about it as much as I am I think going by the way he is shaking his head at the record of this Government—has the worst economic record ofany Government in the last 50 years and no amount of legislation like this can correct for that. We know that historically in the last 50 years the economy has grown much faster under Labour Governments than it has under National Governments. It has grown at a rate of 3.7 percent on average under Labour Governments and only 2.9 percent under National Governments in the last 50 years. So Labour Governments by nearly a percentage point more grow the economy faster than National Governments.But this particular National Government has the worst of any record. It is actually dragging those averages down and that is why I see those backbenchers there looking down shaking their heads. They are embarrassed and so they should be. I would be if I was in their position too. I guess that is why we see Mr Joyce and Ms Collins at the front there already jostling for position as to future leadership. Maybe they think they have a plan—certainly it could not be any less of a plan than is currently in place. This Government seems content to let things ride to let this situation continue and to see New Zealanders paying more than they ought to for power. It will not intervene.We know that housing for example is another area of policy where we see Kiwis no longer able to afford to own their own homes and that is affecting a great number of Kiwi families. Labour has said that it will implement an affordable housing policy calledKiwiBuild. This kind of legislation will enable us to implement such a policy more effectively when in Government but this Government which has no plan for housing and is content to see housing prices skyrocket out of control will not fix anything with this legislation here. This will not help it form a plan—no by no means—and we know that this Government has no plan for the economy.In the Finance and Expenditure Committee Minister Joyce was not across his portfolio when he came to speak to the select committee on economic development. He had not got his supplementary estimates questions in on time. He was a Minister who wanted to delay that. I asked that the committee postpone the hearing of evidence because Mr Joyce was not across his portfolios and the National members on the committee blocked that. That is on record. In fact I moved a resolution at that committee that said that we postpone the meeting until such time as the Minister is across his portfolios and so scared were the members of the committee that they agreed effectively—John Hayes: Not true.Dr DAVID CLARK: No no it is on record Mr Hayes and we will look forward to hearing what you have to say that would contradict this when it is down in black and white. The members of the committee for National were not prepared to postpone the meeting until such time as the Minister was across his portfolios. I think they did not believe he ever would be and that is the issue.This Government is filled with members who are not across their portfolios who do not have an effective plan for growing the economy and so ordinary New Zealanders are suffering as median wages go down. As costs go up as New Zealanders out of work cannot find a job those people who want to work hard to improve the lot of their families are faced with a Government that is interested in only the big end of town that is seeing small business suffer and that is seeing ordinary Kiwi families take home effectively less pay because the work is not there. The conditions are not right because jobs are not there. This economy is struggling with a Government that has no leadership no plan and no way of looking out for the little guy.It is a Government that is concerned about only the big end of town and this legislation will not help that. This legislation will not form a plan for the Government; it will only help to deliver on its promises a Government that actually has a plan. This Government will not be saved by this legislation.That said it is good legislation. We will be supporting it because it will enable future Governments that actually have a plan to make positive change in this House for the betterment of New Zealanders so that ordinary Kiwis can finally get a chance to get ahead in an economy that grows. That would be a Labour Government and hopefully it will come sooner rather than later.