8. GERRY BROWNLEE (National—Ilam) Link to this
to the Minister of State Services
What new initiatives have been undertaken by the State Services Commission since he became Minister?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN (Leader of the House) Link to this
The Minister has been involved in a range of initiatives. [ Interruption] I confess I was very closely going through Mr Finlayson’s Supplementary Order Paper with some interest. The Minister of State Services has been the Minister for only a short period; however, in that time the Minister is pleased to have launched a report transforming the State services. This is the second annual report on the development goals programme, which is designed to transform the State services in a way that is in line with Government priorities and delivers better results for all New Zealanders. A new initiative in 2007 has been the inclusion of a value-for-money State services goal as one of the six goals.
Under what initiative or protocol was the Acting Minister provided with the information that Erin Leigh had “repeated competence issues”; and who provided that information?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
All matters in relation to that have now been delegated to the Minister of Justice, who will reply to any questions in relation to those matters.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. You can see now, in relation to the point of order I raised at the start of question time today, what a difficulty we have got into. We have had a Minister standing up in the House and making a statement about Erin Leigh’s competence well after the investigation into those matters had begun by the State Services Commission, and now, some days later, realising that there is a problem around this, the Government has decided to use this particular provision of our Standing Orders in order to shield the Minister from having to make statements about the veracity of the claims made to this House. That is not the action of Ministers who are being accountable; it is the action of Ministers who are trying to avoid the sorts of questions they should answer in the public interest.
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
First of all, I could have raised a point of order about the relevance of the supplementary question to the principal question, which was about new initiatives undertaken by the State Services Commission. Secondly, the member was informed at the time he submitted this question about the fact that a delegation had occurred. He could therefore have put down the question to the appropriate Minister in this respect. The Government is perfectly happy to answer questions on this matter that are addressed to the appropriate Minister. [ Interruption]
Madam SPEAKERI have not ruled on your point of order—unless you would like me not to rule on it. I was going to say that I understood the member’s point. The member himself said that the Government’s actions were consistent with the Standing Orders and Speakers’ rulings, but I have undertaken to look at the issue, given that the member does consider it to be a serious issue.
I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. My point is simply this: here we have the Deputy Prime Minister, acting today for the Minister of State Services, saying that he cannot answer a question about a matter that relates to a particular issue occurring within the State services, and that, rather than being addressed to him, that question should have been directed to the Minister Annette King, who has been given the responsibility for dealing with it. It is clear to the whole House that Annette King is not present in the House today, either. That raises the question of who might have answered on her behalf, and the recent history of the Government suggests that it would in fact have been the Deputy Prime Minister.
I thank the member, but he is going over ground that has already been gone over. As was pointed out, he was given notice of this delegation, and if we had all had a little more notice of it, maybe we could have ruled on it.
Can he advise the House whether the person who provided the Acting Minister with the information was employed by the Ministry for the Environment, or was it someone employed in the Beehive?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
As I said, a delegation has occurred in relation to all those matters. The Minister with that delegation will be happy to respond to any further questions.
Can he, or any other Minister, provide the House with the information upon which Mr Mallard made his allegations last week?
Hon Dr MICHAEL CULLEN Link to this
That question should be put down to the Minister with the delegated responsibility for this matter.