11. CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
Does he stand by his statement “we don’t actually have a procurement policy. We have a set of assumptions, prejudices, habits and an Auditor-General.”?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
Yes. We inherited a set of procurement guidelines that are deficient in a number of areas. In particular, they make it very difficult for people with innovative ideas to do business with the public sector, at a time when we need the participation of the private sector and its good ideas. As a result, we have set about making significant improvements to Government procurement.
Does he support a procurement policy that requires Government departments and agencies to consider the wider economic impact on the country of their procurement decisions, rather than a narrow financial analysis considering only the cost to themselves; if not, why not?
We support a procurement policy that will enable us to deliver high-quality public services to New Zealanders, and do so at lower cost. That is the Government’s top priority. In respect of its impact on economic development, we share the views of the previous Government—that is, it is not a significant consideration for Government procurement.
Can he name any trade agreements breached by Labour’s recently announced procurement policy and explain how it breaches those agreements, given that most of New Zealand’s trading partners have internal procurement policies themselves?
Mr SPEAKERAs much as the Minister may like to answer the question, I am not sure that he is responsible for Labour Party policy. Rather than deprive the member of a supplementary question, I invite her to reword her question.
Hon Trevor Mallard Link to this
I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. It was a question about whether he could name any breaches. It goes to his mind, not the policy.
I am prepared to allow the Minister to answer the question. I am sure he will probably quite enjoy answering a question in relation to Labour Party policy.
I have not bothered looking at the Labour procurement policy, because I have made the same assumption that everyone has—that is, it will be backward-looking and it will signal big spending, more waste, and more debt. Why would I worry about that?
Since I allowed the Minister to answer the question, maybe he should make just a little bit of reference to trade agreements, because the question asked whether Labour’s policy would breach any trade agreements. It does give the Minister a fair bit of licence, but some mention of trade agreements would perhaps be helpful.
I have not bothered looking at Labour’s policy, so I cannot comment on whether it would breach trade agreements. But it is likely to breach common sense.
Does he agree with Business New Zealand Executive Director, Catherine Beard, who said in Monday’s Dominion Post that agencies were tilting the field “slightly against local participation”; if not, why not?
No. We want to tilt the field in favour of companies who have innovative and forward-looking ideas about how they can work with the Government to supply better public services. That is quite different from the approach of the previous Government, which tried to have as little as possible to do with the private sector, and which managed to kill off any innovative thinking in the Public Service with a combination of fear and bullying.
I seek leave to table a written transcript of Bill English’s speech at the NetHui conference in Auckland on 30 June, and an electronic version of that speech.