Appointments

Hon JOHN CARTER (Acting Leader of the House) Link to this

I move, That pursuant to section 7(2) of the Public Audit Act 2001, this House recommend His Excellency the Governor-General appoint Lynette Diana Provost, of Upper Hutt, as Controller and Auditor-General for a term of seven years. The House has been asked to recommend the appointment of Lyn Provost as Controller and Auditor-General, following a report from the Officers of Parliament Committee. The committee carried out an extensive recruitment process.

Officers of Parliament are unusual in that they are appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the House and are interviewed for the job by a select committee. The Officers of Parliament Committee carried out a thorough search for the best candidate for the role. I understand that the committee made its selection from a strong field of candidates after interviewing them and having a panel of technical experts interview them. The role of the Auditor-General is not an easy one.

Parliament seeks independent assurance that public sector organisations are operating in accordance with Parliament’s intentions and are accounting properly for their performance. There is also a need for independent assurance of local government. Local authorities are accountable to the public for their activities. As an Officer of Parliament the Auditor-General provides independent assurance to the Parliament and to the public.

The Auditor-General operates independently of the Government, and as an Officer of Parliament the person in the role must have very high standards of integrity and judgment. In Lyn Provost we have such a person. She is currently a deputy police commissioner, a position she has held for the past 8 years. As deputy commissioner she has been responsible for six police districts, as well as for leading finance, planning, information technology, and strategy within the police. Prior to taking her role with the police she was acting chief executive at Archives New Zealand. Ms Provost also has experience as Assistant Controller and Auditor-General.

As is customary with appointments of Officers of Parliament, all political parties in the House have been consulted on the appointment. They unanimously agree to it. The appointment is for one term of 7 years, which is the maximum term the Public Audit Act 2001 allows. I am pleased to move Lyn Provost’s appointment as Auditor-General. She goes to lead an organisation that has a great deal of interaction with Parliament and is vital to the effective functioning of our system of Government. I commend her appointment to the House.

Before I conclude I will also make a comment about the retiring Auditor-General, Kevin Brady. He took up the position of Controller and Auditor-General on 6 May 2002. He joined the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General in 1971 and worked in Napier, Palmerston North, Timaru, and Wellington audit offices before being appointed to the role of Assistant Auditor-General, Local Government in 1990.

The public functions and duties of the Controller and Auditor-General are set out in the Public Audit Act 2001. In summary, they are to provide an assurance to Parliament that public entities are operating effectively, efficiently, and appropriately, using public funds wisely, and reporting their performance. Kevin is also a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of New Zealand and holds a Master of Public Policy degree from Victoria University. We wish him well in his retirement.

Hon ANNETTE KING (Deputy Leader—Labour) Link to this

I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. For the accuracy of the record of this House, I just correct the Minister in what was a very good speech. Our new—once this House has agreed—Auditor-General’s surname is pronounced “Pro-vo”.

Hon STEVE CHADWICK (Labour) Link to this

I am pleased to take a call today as a member of the Officers of Parliament Committee, which is one of those committees of Parliament that a lot of people around New Zealand do not know a lot about. It considers matters as significant as the appointment of the Controller and Auditor-General, which has been a very interesting process for us to be part of in a bipartisan way. As a committee we extend our sincere congratulations to Lyn Provost on her appointment, particularly as she has had a wonderful career, as has been mentioned, as a deputy police commissioner, working in Archives New Zealand, and just recently as the Assistant Controller in the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General.

Lyn Provost is very deserving of this role, and she joins a wonderful group of women in New Zealand ranked in top positions in this country. We can think of people like Dame Silvia Cartwright, our first woman Governor-General; Dame Sian Elias, our first woman Chief Justice; former Prime Ministers Jenny Shipley and Helen Clark; and Margaret Wilson, our first woman Speaker of the House. We have some women functioning at a very high level in the Public Service, and it is aspirational for women across New Zealand to see that we now have a Controller and Auditor-General who is a woman. We in Labour are really proud of that, and we see that this gives a wonderful message to all women in New Zealand that if they aim high, train well, and are well educated, they too can make such a position. I am sure Lyn Provost never imagined that one day she would reach such a position in this country.

We wish Lyn well in her role, which is a very important role. It is a role that requires the trust of all parties in the House, and a great deal of confidence that she is carrying out the role of Controller and Auditor-General fairly, equitably, and with a professional hand in terms of managing the work programme for the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General, which we are involved with on a day-to-day basis at various select committees.

I have just a sad note, though: here is Lyn Provost, who has achieved this wonderful appointment that we will be confirming next week in the House, at the same time as the Government has received a report from the Human Rights Commission that confirms that chief executives of Government departments must work to overcome pay equity issues in their organisations. I congratulate our spokesperson on women’s affairs, Sue Moroney, who for the Opposition benches is fighting the good fight with a Government that says “Women can make it. We don’t believe in pay equity. We don’t believe in pay equity investigations for school support workers, social workers, and Child, Youth and Family workers.” I think that is really very sad when 120,000 women in New Zealand are at the moment undertaking pay equity reviews to see whether we can close that gender pay gap. It may be an item that we put on the Department of Labour work programme for the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General, for that office to look at the outcome of scrapping those pay reviews. I am sure that with Lyn Provost now in such an important role, through her framework and lenses she will be looking at the work programme of the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General in a different way.

We congratulate Lyn Provost. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this committee, and it was great to see the confidence that all members of the committee had in the process, which was very fairly followed with due diligence. I am very confident that Lyn will undertake this role to the very best of her ability; that can be nothing but good for the people of New Zealand.

Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) Link to this

I stand on behalf of the Green Party to support the appointment of Lyn Provost as Controller and Auditor-General. It is seldom understood outside Parliament—and sometimes not even inside Parliament—that the Controller and Auditor-General is not a Government functionary but reports to Parliament.

The role of Officers of Parliament is a critical part of our democracy. The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, the Ombudsmen, and the Controller and Auditor-General play a key role in keeping Government agencies accountable. All of us, on many occasions, have had cause to turn to the Officers of Parliament in an attempt to make certain parts of Government accountable to the people and to Parliament. The Green Party welcomes Ms Provost to the position.

One of the very interesting aspects that the Auditor-General is grappling with at the moment are the International Financial Reporting Standards that have appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee and various other places. People may assume that financial reporting standards are a settled issue. In fact, until very recently I myself assumed that the standards for the reporting of financial matters were a settled matter and that there was a set of international standards that were well and truly established and settled, but that is not the case.

One of the issues that the previous Auditor-General, Kevin Brady, who did a great job, has been grappling with is what we do about International Financial Reporting Standards that do not work for the public sector. Canada has developed a set of reporting standards around the public sector. A different set of reporting standards I think holds a lot of promise for its application to the New Zealand public sector.

I hope that Lyn Provost, in her new role, along with other Government agencies, can give some attention to this matter, so that we have a set of reporting standards and financial reporting standards that make sense for the public sector. The International Financial Reporting Standards make sense for large banks, large financial institutions, and large businesses and corporations, but do not necessarily make a lot of sense for the public sector. They certainly do not make a lot of sense for the non-governmental organisations sector, which needs its own set of reporting standards and financial reporting standards.

I welcome Lyn Provost to the job. I hope she enjoys it, and I put that as one of the challenges that are now on her plate. Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker.

Hon PETER DUNNE (Leader—United Future) Link to this

I am pleased to speak on the appointment of Lyn Provost as the new Controller and Auditor-General. Along with Mr Foss, Mr Robertson, and the Hon Sir Roger Douglas, I was part of the Officers of Parliament Committee that conducted the interviews for the position. I must say, in mild contradiction to Steve Chadwick, who said she believed Ms Provost could not have imagined ever becoming the Auditor-General, that one of the things Ms Provost said during the course of her interview—and I am sure I am not breaching confidence—was that very early in her career she set herself the goal of becoming New Zealand’s first woman Auditor-General. I am delighted that by confirming her in the role today we have achieved that goal for her.

I have no doubt Lyn Provost will be an outstanding Auditor-General. She comes with a great background. She took on the role of Deputy Commissioner of Police as a civilian at a time when the police were under considerable stress and strain. She then brought together the new Policing Act that Parliament passed during the term of the previous Government, and she oversaw the whole change in police culture that arose as a result of certain matters arising from the Bazley report. That was no mean feat. On that basis alone, I think she is more than suitably qualified to take on the new and challenging role of Auditor-General.

She comes to the role at time when there is a need for fresh leadership within the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General. I have been concerned over the last couple of years at what I regard as an increasingly scattergun approach by the Audit Office to some of the functions it carries out. We have seen a number of reviews undertaken on a range of issues, from defence procurement to medicine procurement to other specialist areas of Government activity, where, in my view, the office has gone well beyond its brief of being a financial reporter. It has started to report on the way in which those practices are carried out, often with very limited consultation with the organisations concerned. For instance, in the area of local government there has been a longstanding technical debate about the treatment of depreciation. The office has declined to become involved in that issue, yet it affects a whole range of local government operations across New Zealand. Therefore, one of the things I think the new Auditor-General has to focus on is getting back to the core business of making sure that the office conducts good value-for-money audits, and that it does a financial auditing role in the proper sense. I have some sympathy with the view that Dr Norman expressed about International Financial Reporting Standards and ensuring that we develop standards that are understandable and compatible with business practice in New Zealand.

All of those are challenges for the new Auditor-General. In Lyn Provost we have an outstanding new appointee and I wish her well in the role. I look forward to her leadership and, along with other members of this Parliament, I look forward to engaging with her in her new role. I offer my congratulations and best wishes to her as she takes up this appointment.

RAHUI KATENE (Māori Party—Te Tai Tonga) Link to this

The Māori Party is pleased to take a call in supporting the appointment of Lyn Provost to the role of Controller and Auditor-General. One of the most insightful reflections of the previous Controller and Auditor-General, Kevin Brady, was that it is not a popularity poll type of job—he should know. During his reign, the Controller and Auditor-General launched nearly 200 inquiries, including high-profile inquiries into the controversial $18 million public relations campaign spent by Labour on Working for Families, and various probes into political parties, including our friends in ACT and the Greens. Of course the most explosive of these was when he captured the nation’s interest in the 2006 report into election spending.

Lyn Provost has big footprints to fill. Mrs Provost has the support of the House in stepping up to the challenge. The release from the Speaker of the House said it all: “It is vital that the person appointed to this position has impeccable integrity and sound judgment”. But Mrs Provost also has a reputation for bringing in a fresh breath of air to an organisation and its functions. She was not only the first woman to be appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police; she was also the first non-sworn person to be given the job. Both of those capacities gave her a unique edge in the leadership position.

Her focus on becoming the second in command in the police force was to make sure that every time a member of the public had contact with the police, it was a positive experience. The Māori Party, of course, would have no debate with that. There is now more than sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the police perceptions of Māori were certainly worthy of review. But she has also brought her vision to many other areas of the Public Service, including a role as acting chief executive of Archives New Zealand and senior manager at the State Services Commission. The breadth of her experience will be a huge asset for the perspectives she will bring to the role of Controller and Auditor-General.

The Māori Party has always placed great confidence in the capacity of the Controller and Auditor-General to provide an independent view—the type of uncompromising approach to auditing for outcomes beyond reproach. We need leadership that is fearless, frank, and firm, if we are to invest in the type of accountability and transparency that the system demands. In our Māori Party policy we have called on the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General to report annually on the effectiveness of interventions targeted at Māori, Pacific, refugee, and migrant communities, as well as young people. We believe that the role requires officers of Parliament who can be brave, who can be honourable, and who can be independent. These qualities are essential to understand whether the interventions that the Government pursues are making the difference in terms of outcomes. We also would like to see the office report annually on the capability of the State sector to achieve outcomes for Māori while at the same time profiling good practice. It may well be the perfect time for the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General to take a brave new look at institutional racism, as was very evident in question time today.

The presence, operation, and effect of institutional racism was highlighted in New Zealand in 1986 with the publication of Pūao-te-ata-tū - Daybreak, which is a report by the ministerial advisory committee on the Māori perspective, for the then Department of Social Welfare. The report describes the differences between Māori and non-Māori clients across a range of indicators as a “picture of crisis proportions”, recommending significant changes to the policies and practices of Government agencies, with the objective to “eliminate deprivation and alienation”. The substantive recommendations of the report appear to have been ignored, and provide therefore a perfect opportunity for the new Auditor-General to look critically at whether the “picture of crisis proportions” is still prevalent in our agencies of the State.

For 20 years on, the picture across many indicators is either unchanged or more dire than in 1986, such as the differences between Māori and non-Māori prison admissions or life expectancy, respectively. The Māori Party will be introducing a member’s bill at the first available opportunity, to eliminate the presence, operation, and effects of institutional racism. But in the period between the time that the legislation appears and now, we welcome the opportunity for the new Auditor-General to hit the ground running with an inquiry to ascertain the extent to which Government departments and their contracted service providers are eliminating institutional racism. The Māori Party welcomes Mrs Provost to the position, and wishes her every success in demonstrating impeccable integrity and sound judgment in the formidable tasks ahead.

CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) Link to this

I rise to speak in favour of the motion. National supports the motion that Mrs Lyn Provost be the new Controller and Auditor-General.

First of all, and as previous speakers have noted, I wish to acknowledge other members of the Officers of Parliament Committee, of which I am a member, and the chair of the subcommittee that was put in charge of this process of recommending this appointment to Mr Speaker. I also wish to thank the independent advisers and the officials who assisted us greatly—there was quite a large group of people. They made our job a bit easier, at the end of the day, with their advice and we are thankful to them.

I acknowledge and pay tribute to the outgoing Controller and Auditor-General, Mr Kevin Brady. Mr Brady was born in Ōāmaru and he joined the Audit Office in 1971. He has been in the system for quite some time, and has worked in various roles with the Audit Office. In the 1980s he was a regional director with the Audit Office in Wellington and in Palmerston North. He was appointed Assistant Auditor-General in 1988. He was appointed Deputy Controller and Auditor-General in February 2000, and was appointed Controller and Auditor-General in 2002. Mr Brady was responsible for several major reports, on behalf of the office.

Mr Brady’s efforts in the local government area were recognised in 1996, when he was made a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. Mr Brady also received the Richard Ratliff Award in 2006, which was awarded by the Institute of Internal Auditors New Zealand, for his outstanding contribution to the promotion and practice of internal auditing. He has been an executive member of the South Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions, and has in that role coordinated major trainee programmes for auditors from various South Pacific countries.

The Auditor-General engages with the committees of this Parliament. Mostly the Audit Office engages with the Finance and Expenditure Committee, of which I have been a member since 2005, and I am now chair of that committee in this new Parliament. I acknowledge Mr Brady and, on behalf of the other members of the committee in the previous Parliament and in this one, I am sure, I thank him for the way in which he has engaged himself and his tight leadership team with the direction, the clarity, the assistance, and even the pointers, in many instances, that he has given our committee on various issues the office has looked at or perhaps felt it necessary that they should be pursued further.

An earlier speaker picked up on a bit of a hobby horse of the retiring Controller and Auditor-General—his interest in the International Financial Reporting Standards. A report was tabled today by the Finance and Expenditure Committee, and I am sure Mr Brady will be pleased to know that the committee is continuing to examine that issue and has picked up the Audit Office’s most recent report on the appropriateness of those International Financial Reporting Standards to some of New Zealand’s public sector accounting reporting areas.

I am sure that New Zealand taxpayers and New Zealand citizens would also join me in thanking Mr Brady and his office for their constant vigilance of the assets of the Government, and of central and local government processes, and for their accountability and responsibility for the wealth of the citizens of New Zealand, of which they are in charge. I am also confident that the new Controller and Auditor-General, Mrs Lyn Provost, will continue that very, very high standard. I look forward to seeing the work programmes that she may be picking up on, continuing, or starting. I say that quite genuinely. I am looking forward, as a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee, of this Government, and of Parliament, to working with Mrs Provost when we engage in official business.

The Officers of Parliament Committee, which I am a member of, has recommended Mrs Lyn Provost for the position of Controller and Auditor-General. She is currently the Deputy Commissioner of Police in the resource management area, which is a position she has held for the past 8 years. I am sure that the Minister of Police will not mind my saying that she will be sorely missed from the New Zealand Police in respect of the value she has added, the work she has done, and some of the new standards that she has set.

Other speakers have touched on some of the things that Mrs Provost has been responsible for in the New Zealand Police. I would just like to touch on those also. Most important, she has restored some confidence in the ability of many of the central agencies of the police to manage extensive information and communications technology systems after there were some issues with the previous computer system, and she was responsible for the seamless migration from the old Wanganui law enforcement system to a new national intelligence application. Mrs Provost has overseen the digital radio project, to replace the police’s outgoing and ageing analog radio system.

Mrs Provost has played a significant part in the initial police response to the Commission of Inquiry into Police Conduct by mobilising the team to effectively and efficiently stocktake and analyse many years’ worth of historical files and to provide the commission with coherent and timely responses to its inquiries. Mrs Provost has also been responsible for leading a radical overhaul of the 50-year-old Police Act and for sponsoring the introduction of a code of conduct for all staff. She was also responsible for the introduction of a leadership development framework to grow a new generation of police leaders. I think it goes without saying that, with that small track record of those few items I have mentioned, the House can have much confidence in the direction and standards that Mrs Provost will bring to her new role.

Prior to being Deputy Commissioner of Police Mrs Provost held various roles in the public sector. She was Acting Chief Executive of Archives New Zealand, branch manager of the State Services Commission, and Assistant Controller and Auditor-General from 1993 to 1995. As Minister Dunne noted earlier, it was always an ambition of hers to one day become the Controller and Auditor-General of New Zealand. That dream of hers has come to pass, and I am very pleased to have had a role in making that happen, assuming that the House votes in favour of the motion.

The role of Auditor-General is very, very important. The independence of the Auditor-General is one of the key pillars of our democracy.

The Auditor-General, like all Public Service entities and Officers of Parliament, is required by the Public Finance Act 1989 to present to the House an annual report at the end of each financial year. The annual report enables the Auditor-General to explain to Parliament and to the public what he or she has done and how well the Audit Office has performed during the year. It includes financial and non-financial information, and discusses the extent to which the office has achieved its goals for that year.

With this interface with the House in our process, once the annual report of the Controller and Auditor-General is presented to the House, the financial review of the office stands referred to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. The select committee examines the performance and operations of the office over the previous financial year and reports back to the House. During the Budget process the select committee also examines the estimates of Vote Audit.