Parata Hekia: Urgent Debates — Teachers and Support Staff Payroll—Ministerial Inquiry into Novopay SystemText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeParata Hekia: Urgent Debates — Teachers and Support Staff Payroll—Ministerial Inquiry into Novopay System[Sitting date: 04 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10657. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon HEKIA PARATA (Minister of Education): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this snap debate on Novopay. I think it might be helpful if we just review what was intended by the introduction of Novopay. First of all it was intended that we have an up-to-date payroll system that would manage the complexities of over 100000 pay instructions every fortnight to a diverse workforce with different arrangements across the country. Everyone who has been involved with Novopay set about it with the best intentions. There was no one person who decided that they should get involved in this and work it so that it would be difficult; it would be a problem; it would underpay overpay or not pay teachers support staff and principals; or it would create headaches for every school administrator. That was never the intention. The intention was to have a much better payroll system driven by a very clear understanding some years ago that the payroll system that was then in place was no longer going to be capable of meeting those needs.Members in the Opposition—Labour and the Greens—seem to be under the misapprehension that somehow or another there was an intention that this would all go wrong. Nobody wanted that; nobody wants that now. There also seem to have been a number of allegations that Ministers on this side of the House have been completely culpable and unwilling to take responsibility. Again that is not true. What is clear from this very comprehensive and very thorough report that has been written by the well-respected senior experienced former public servant Sir Maarten Wevers and another very experienced businessman and adviser Mr Murray Jack is that there have been a range of people involved over the many years of this particular project. In fact if one looks at the report there are three pages about ministerial responsibilities and there are a number of Ministers who have held those responsibilities over the years beginning with the decision in 2003 and 2005 that the system needed to be replaced progressing through the signing of a contract which was done under Minister Mallard then under Minister Maharey and then Minister Carter who in fact signed off the Novopay contract with many of the schedules attached to it not yet filled out. Nevertheless again it was with the intention that a better fit for purpose payroll system would be devised and implemented that would see all of the complexities which have been much talked about dealt with and teachers principals and support staff paid.Of course our Government came in and inherited it and we have also been part of the process of design development and implementation. This report—a very thorough and comprehensive report as I said prepared by Sir Maarten Wevers and Mr Murray Jack—canvassed that very extensive history over all of that time from 10 December 1999 to the present date and as the Minister responsible for Novopay made clear when he first took over this responsibility there is absolutely enough blame to go around. It is not something that any of us celebrate on this side of the House nor should it be the case on that side of the House. What was intended was that a fit for purpose 21stcentury payroll system would be designed and delivered. Did that happen? No. We know that now we knew that comprehensively from when the system went live in August last year and we have seen a momentum of errors that have beset that system. We know that many people were underpaid overpaid or not paid and we have apologised to them and continue to apologise to them because that was never the intention. We want people paid on time and paid what they are owed in their banks as intended and we want to see that occur.Where are we now? Well significant progress has been made. We have already heard from previous speakers including the Minister responsible for Novopay that five out of the last six pay rounds have been very successful in terms of error rates. We know that we have invested more money to fix the problems and to recognise the significant contribution that has been made by school administrators in particular. We acknowledge how hard it has been for them and the call on their time and how difficult it has been for everyone embroiled in this process. We are working to get everything fixed and we are making progress. Talk about taking responsibility: we instituted a technical review and the recommendations of that are being followed through. We instituted a ministerial review and today’s debate is driven by the fact that we have a 113-page report that sets out in thorough comprehensive and transparent detail all of the issues relating to the Novopay situation. Where to from here? Well a number of findings have also been made in this report that we will be following up on because we want to get this right—we want to get this right.There have been suggestions from the Opposition that this has been an exercise in shifting blame—not at all. This report is very clear about where responsibilities have lain at different points in the process. I want to make it clear that not once—not once—in the time that I have been Minister of Education and that is almost 18 months to the day have I bagged the Ministry of Education and I do not intend to start now. Novopay has contributed significant difficulties and challenges and they are being tackled. The Acting Secretary of Education in the 4 months that he has been in place—and I would like to acknowledge and thank him for the work that he has done—has instituted a number of immediate changes seeking to ensure that the systems and processes within the Ministry of Education are robust. For instance he has put in place new governance arrangements across the ministry. He has implemented new project management arrangements and accountabilities to deliver on the Better Public Services targets and other ministerial priorities. He has put in place a new risk management approach for the ministry. He has started an end-to-end review on how we manage private and sensitive information. He has talked to a range of agencies groups and members of the sector across the sector and he has started a process of culture change in the ministry with a focus on teamwork service and flexibility.But there are also a whole lot of other things that the Ministry of Education has been doing and is doing successfully. It has focused significantly on our Better Public Services target. We have a Better Public Services target that recognises that we need to have more young learners involved in quality early learning and that we need to have more young people at and above the national standards and more young people—Chris Hipkins: Just say sorry.Hon HEKIA PARATA: —passing National Certificate of Educational Achievement level 2. If the member had been here in the House for the bulk of my remarks the member would know that I have canvassed all of these issues including the responsibilities that relate to all Ministers since 1999 and the decisions that have been made at different points.Chris Hipkins: Did she say sorry?Hon HEKIA PARATA: Indeed I have and I am now talking about the significant contribution that the Ministry of Education has been making is making and will continue to make across a raft of issues including how we attend to and address all of those arising out of Novopay; the challenges to the repair of relationships that must occur within and between the sector and us; and how we ensure that the sector has confidence that the system is meeting its needs. We know that that is increasingly occurring.We are focusing on fixing this because we want teachers support staff and principals paid on time. We want boards of trustees and school administrators to have all of this pressure alleviated. We want a system that works which indeed was the intention of the previous Government when it first signed off this system. All of us I believe have had the best intentions of ensuring a 21st century fit for purpose payroll system. That is what the sector deserves and that is what we are bent on providing. That is why we have this report today setting out for us not just the technical detail which we have canvassed but all of this detail here. We have lessons to learn and we are moving on with those. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.