McNair Craig: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McNair Craig: Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee 
[Sitting date: 14 December 2004. Volume:622;Page:17842. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CRAIG McNAIR (NZ First) 
: 
 In speaking to the second reading of the Public Finance (State Sector Management) Bill I note that it covers the main legislation that governs public finance and the management of the State sector. I also note that the bill is the culmination of a review of public management. The Review of the Centre suggested there should be initiatives to support better integration greater flexibility and an increased focus on results without losing the system’s current strengths of transparency accountability and financial management. The Minister of Finance Michael Cullen stated that the bill was “designed to strengthen the public service make it more transparent and flexible allow a more integrated response to complex—” 
The question was raised by Simon Power that a Minister was not present in the Chamber. The Assistant Speaker declared that a Minister was present. 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: Before I was interrupted I was saying that the Minister of Finance said that the bill will “… allow a more integrated response to complex social problems involving a number of state agencies and invigorate the culture of the state sector.” as the previous speaker said. 
But after looking at the bill and after being on the Finance and Expenditure Committee and hearing the concerns of the submitters as they came to the table one by one I say that the bill sadly will not achieve those objectives. The New Zealand First members of the select committee myself and the Rt Hon Winston Peters wanted to see whether the bill did what Michael Cullen said it would do. We also wanted to hear the submissions to find out whether submitters believed the bill achieved its goals. After doing that I still feel strongly that it does not in many ways. In some ways it does and in other ways it does not.This bill amends the Public Finance Act and the State Sector Act and creates a new Crown Entities Act. The Government says that it will improve transparency and accountability. Sadly I really feel once again that that will not happen under this legislation in its current shape and form. 
I believe that this bill is appropriately named—not because it is good legislation but because it represents more State control by the Government. This Government is sadly all about State control. I believe that it wants to have a stronger grip on anything and everything in our society. It does not want to allow the elderly RSA members who fought for our rights as a nation to have a cigarette at the local “Razza”—it does not want them to do that. The Government wants to have more State control over our taxes and our education system as we can see in this very bill. I will get to that point later on. The Government wants to have more control over our values and what we believe in. I believe we are going down a very scary road. 
Representatives from our educational institutions came before the select committee and they were very very concerned about this legislation. They along with the Clerk of the House and others were concerned about it. The Clerk had a lot of concerns that the Government members on the committee listened to. I like Bill English admire the Clerk for standing up against this legislation and honestly saying that it will not work in its current form—that it will not float as it were. In the same way I admire the tertiary education sector. The institutions joined forces came to the select committee and told us of their fears and concerns about the control that this bill would give to the Government. Some people may say that the intent of the Government is very admirable—or it should be admirable whatever the Government is. But we cannot be 100 percent sure of that in view of some of the things that we have seen go through this House in the past few months. I strongly feel that a lot of the issues in this legislation need to be clarified more comprehensively. Speaking of the submitters it was amazing to see each submitter come into the select committee one by one and to find that a lot of them had similar concerns. They had a wide range of concerns but in many ways those concerns all centred around the issue of still wanting to be independent—or the fear that they would lose their independence. 
Ultimately at the end of the day New Zealand First members had to look—as did all members of the select committee—at this legislation as a whole and ask whether it would be best for New Zealand in the long run. Sadly we had to say that no it would not. 
Darren Hughes 
: Was it a close vote? 
CRAIG McNAIR 
: It was 13 to nil. New Zealand First opposes this legislation.