Curran Clare: Debate on Prime Minister’s StatementText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCurran Clare: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement[Sitting date: 01 March 2016. Volume:711;Page:9244. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South): The Prime Minister’s statement is an opportunity to get a bit philosophical about why we are politicians and about why we are all here why we are all committed to a set of values what we actually came in here to do and whether or not we have managed to achieve any of it. So I am going to start with a quote from A A Milne who as you all know wrote Winnie-the-Pooh: “Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.” Well this National Government has not only lost its way but it is turning our political system into a fake democracy—a fake democracy where there is no Kiwi Dream and where there is not much meaning.Just a month ago New Zealand slipped down again in the global transparency rankings. We are no longer the least corrupt country in the world. Transparency International’s 2016 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks us behind Denmark Finland and Sweden. This is our worst ranking since 1998 which was the year before Helen Clark became the Prime Minister. Our Public Service works hard to be open and impartial but this Government is doing damage to our reputation whether it is through the Saudi sheep saga whether it is the Oravida scandal whether it is handing out payments to MediaWorks or whether it is cronyism and dodgy deals. But of course that is not all.Jonathan Young talked about the Opposition undermining the achievements of this Government. Well what has really been happening since 2009 is that we have seen a steady erosion of democracy in this country. There are some glaring examples of this. Some of the most glaring include the freezing of funding and the gutting of public broadcasting in this country the stifling of reasoned debate—public debate—and the scoffing at and belittling of those who have attempted to keep debate alive in this country.As I said we have been embroiled in scandals around handouts to MediaWorks and editorial interference in Māori Television.We have seen questionable appointments to the board of Radio New Zealandthe freezing of funding to Radio New Zealand New Zealand On Air and Māori Television the killing off of TVNZ 7—I could go on and on. It is just the tip of the iceberg but there are more. There are increased central government powers at the expense of elected regional and local government—of course the suspending of the elected council at Environment Canterbury is the glaring example of that.There is the withholding of information under the Official Information Act—delaying or releasing documents that are mostly redacted. This is not a Government that is committed to transparency and openness which we saw late last year when the Ombudsman released a report into the Official Information Act that showed Government departments being encouraged by Ministers’ offices to withhold material for political reasons. It was incredibly disappointing. That report also contains some disappointing information from the Ombudsman with her suggestion that media and politicians could be charged for information which would set a dangerous precedent. It is a longstanding convention that agencies do not charge media or politicians because it would stifle the free flow of information that is in the public interest. So what happened? In January we had the first sign that agencies are charging for Official Information Act requests with the Reserve Bank charging a Fairfax business journalist as part of that policy.Then we have got hard evidence of Government inaction on transparency and accountability with the Open Government Partnership report released just a couple of weeks ago—New Zealand is part of an Open Government Partnership consisting of 69 Governments—which found a huge lack of consultation and ambition in opening up the Government and an action plan that consists of programmes that are already under way and are not designed to improve Government practice. That report does not practise what it preaches.We are seeing a lack of openness and transparency. What New Zealanders want is a sense of meaning from their Government; instead we have a Government that has lost its way.