Cullen Michael: Standing Orders 
Cullen Michael: Standing Orders 
[Volume:627;Page:22357] 
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Leader of the House) 
: 
 I move  
That the amendments to the Standing Orders relating to pecuniary interests of members of Parliament and the transitional provision for the initial returns for the register as set out on Supplementary Order Paper 381 be adopted and agreed to and take effect on the day following the dissolution or expiration of this Parliament.  
This issue arose some little time ago. The Government made it clear that it was its desire to institute a register of pecuniary interests of members of Parliament. Ministers of course already have a register of pecuniary interests and that has now dated back a very long time indeed. I think the public has a right to know the nature of the pecuniary interests that members of Parliament have and how that might relate to ways in which they cast their votes within the House. It is a matter of transparency in terms of the way we act within the Parliament. 
There was an initial indication from a number of parties that there would not be support to address this by way of the Standing Orders and therefore the Government determined to introduce a bill which was introduced—the Members of Parliament (Pecuniary Interests) Bill—and was referred to a select committee. I then received approaches from some parties indicating that while they did not support the changes themselves if they were to occur they would much prefer they were done by Standing Orders than by way of legislation. 
The reason for that was very clear. If this is part of the Standing Orders then the Parliament remains in charge of its own destiny in that respect; whereas if it is by way of legislation then there is at least a potential risk of some form of judicial intervention in these matters. I think that would raise some rather interesting and difficult constitutional questions which in taking off my Leader of the House hat and putting my Attorney-General hat on I would much rather we did not get into at some future point. It is far preferable in my view for this to be done by way of the review of Standing Orders. 
I actually want to thank those parties such as ACT and New Zealand First which opposed the changes for accepting that that was still a sensible method of moving forward on the issue given that the Government did have a majority to pass legislation. 
I wish to thank the National Party for its support on this matter. I think we had some very useful discussions within the Standing Orders Committee about the particular nature of the interests to be included. 
I do not think members of Parliament should be in the least alarmed about all of this. Indeed one of the interesting issues that is going to arise I think for the incoming Government whoever it may be—and I will dwell on that matter a little bit later on this evening—is whether a separate register of Ministers’ interests in fact will be required given that this particular register is at least as comprehensive as the register of Ministers’ interests. In the case of that register for example initially I put in the fact that I had shares within a collective investment fund—a BNZ managed fund—and was told I did not need to make that particular return. I must say I regard that as pretty strange given that it is not an insignificant sum of money now that is contained within that fund. I think it is quite appropriate that if I am engaged in issues—as I am as Minister of Finance—that might have some tangential relationship to such funds these people can clearly state absolutely openly that I do have an interest in that respect which is one that under our Standing Orders does not preclude me from voting because it is one share with a very large number of other people. 
I would much rather that than suddenly have someone in the  
National Business Review 
 discovering I had such shares and turning that into some kind of peculiar banner headline of no significance which I must say is sort of standard business reporting in this country by and large. I keep trying to persuade the publishers of the  
Australian Financial Review 
 that they should set up a new weekly business newspaper within New Zealand that has roughly the same kind of standard that the  
Australian Financial Review  
has in terms of business reporting. 
So members will be required to make a declaration of pecuniary interest that will cover a range of defined matters. The register will be published. The Auditor-General will review the returns and may inquire into matters if he or she thinks fit that that should be done. It will be published and I think it is simply a quite straightforward measure which has been done in a number of other Parliaments. And in a Parliament such as ours which is very open and very transparent this is simply another stage in that openness and transparency.