fivepeas limited

Members' day

2009-07-01T12:02:00.007+12:00

The Order Paper for today has been released on the Parliament website. Fivepeas is signed up to Parliamentary Alerts so the Order Paper is sent through to our desktop once it's available http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/Alerts/.

Today is a Members' Day, which means that all Government business on the Order Paper goes to the back of the queue and MPs from all parties that are not Ministers get the chance to set the House's agenda. Every second Wednesday is set aside as a Members' day, and following question time and a one hour general debate, the House turns to 'Members' bills'. There are always four Members' bills at first reading stage on the Order Paper, followed by Members' bills that have been reported back from select committee, or (less commonly) Members' bills that have survived to later stages.

All MPs have the opportunity to prepare a bill about an issue that interests them. Support with drafting is provided by the Legal Services Office at Parliament, if MPs wish to use it. Under MMP there has been a greater proportion of Members' bills passing their first reading vote and being referred to select committees for public submissions. However, the real test of whether a majority in the House would support a Members' bill comes at the next stage, following the debate on the select committee's report. If the Government perceives at that point a majority in the House are in favour of the bill being passed, it may decide to support the bill by providing departmental officials and drafting resources for the remaining stages of the bill. Some examples of Member's Bills that have been passed by Parliament include Sue Bradford's Anti-Smacking Bill - the Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill, and the Prostitution Reform Bill promoted by Tim Barnett.

Following Members' Day a ballot is held to select up to four new bills for introduction and debate on the next Members' Day. The ballot is literally a container with numbered counters representing each bill, and is conducted in the Table Office with the counters drawn by an independent person.

Members' bills are sometimes referred to as "Private Members' bills", but they haven't been officially called this for well over a decade. "Private bills" are something quite different to Members' bills - a Private bill is promoted by a person or body of persons for the particular interest or benefit of the promoter (for example, the Eden Park Trust Amendment Bill, which amends the Eden Park Trust Act 1955 to implement the new governance arrangements for Eden Park).

Fivepeas Limited is a training consultancy delivering tailored workshops to government departments, state sector agencies and the private sector. If your organisation would like to discuss how a training package could be tailored to your needs then contact us at fivepeas@fivepeas.com

The Estimates are coming!

2009-05-28T14:00:00.006+12:00

Today is Budget Day and the budget documents including the Minister's speech have just been put online by Treasury here. The Budget Statement is read out in the House by the Minister of Finance. The budget documents and Appropriation Bill have now been introduced to the House, and this signals the budget debate and the Estimates process has begun.

Select committees examine the Votes and report to the House

The Estimate examination process involves the scrutiny of the Government's spending decisions by select committees, who have two months to report back to Parliament on their examinations. Each Vote (or spending package) is sent to the relevant select committee, for example, Vote Transport is sent to the Transport and Industrial Relations Committee. While select committees don't have the power to amend budget decisions, they can make recommendations which are then debated by the House. Select committees are advised in private by the Office of the Controller and Auditor-General who report to each committee on each Vote, and recommend lines of questioning for the select committee's examination. Their reports are made public after the select committee reports to the House.

Ministers appear before the select committees

As part of the Estimates examination, the Minister responsible for each Vote (the Vote Minister) appears before the select committee to answer questions, accompanied by officials from the relevant department that administers the Vote. The focus for the examination is on the Minister and the spending decisions in the Budget, and should be forward looking, i.e any questions should focus on how the spend is to be administered, rather than past performance of the administering department.

Written evidence requested

As well as hearing evidence from the Minister and officials, select committee require written evidence to be submitted. Every year, the Finance and Expenditure Committee, revise and publish the Standard Estimates questionnaire which is circulated to all departments. Written answers to those questions are provided prior to the hearing of evidence and form the basis for the examination. Most select committees also send additional questions for written reply. These are called 'supplementary questions'.

Tight deadlines for written replies

Every year the Estimates process causes a flurry of activity within most government agencies within the state sector. The cause for activity is driven by the volume of requests and the tight timeframes for return of replies. With select committees only meeting once a week, with several Votes to examine, and a two month deadline for reporting to Parliament, this pressure is transferred to departments who are sometimes given days, not weeks to respond.

Reporting to the House

Once the committee has heard evidence committee staff assist the committee to draft its report to Parliament. Sometimes the committee have no matters to raise, but in most cases they table a narrative report in Parliament setting out their concerns or issues they might have with each Vote. You can see some examples of past reports of select committees on the Parliamentary website.

Training on the Annual Financial Cycle and the Estimates

For many new public servants these requests for information appear to drop from the sky. Without a sense of their context, most staff responsible for collating and forwarding replies to select committees find it a challenge to create awareness within their own organisations about the reason for the tight timeframes. One of the workshops we deliver focusses on the annual financial cycle which paints the big picture, showing why it is that Parliament requires the Estimates to be examined within two months. Explaining the context during our training helps the planning staff within government agencies enjoy an element of sympathy from staff who understand the need to prioritise the drafting of replies.

Fivepeas Limited is a training consultancy delivering tailored workshops to government departments, state sector agencies and the private sector. If your organisation would like to discuss how a training package could be tailored to your needs then contact us at fivepeas@fivepeas.com

State Opening and reinstatement of business

2008-12-09T14:17:00.011+13:00

The State Opening of Parliament was held this morning and the agenda, or order paper, setting out the business to be transacted is available to be downloaded. The order paper contained the Government's reinstatement motion, which is being debated today. The Government has chosen to move that Parliament reinstate all business (bills, petitions, inquiries, financial reviews) from the last Parliament.

What does this mean for bills from the last Parliament?
Effectively, this means that practically all business before the last Parliament and the previous select committees will be resumed at the same stage they were at when the House rose before the election. For example, a bill that was set down for First Reading will again be placed on the order paper awaiting its First Reading. All bills that were before select committees have now been referred to the relevant new select committee with a common reporting deadline of 30 June 2009. Because select committee membership will be new and many members will not have been exposed to the previous committees' consideration of business in the last Parliament, each new select committee gets to decide what to do with reinstated business. For example, a committee could re-call for submissions, re-hear submissions from the previous Parliament, or simply pick up from where the last select committee left off.

Special adhoc committee on the Emissions Trading Scheme and related matters
As signalled in the political agreement with the ACT Party, the Government has established a special select committee to look at the emissions trading scheme and related matters. It's membership and terms of reference have been agreed to by the House and Hon Peter Dunne has been appointed as chairperson. Every party is represented on the special committee (apart from Progressive) and no deadline has been set for reporting back to the House. The terms of reference can be found on today's order paper (until the Parliament website is updated with the details of all new select committees).

New select committees to meet for the first time
Wednesday and Thursday
The new select committees are set to meet tomorrow and Thursday for 30 minutes to elect a chairperson. You can see the schedule of meetings which has been published on the Parliament website here. Unlike the special adhoc committee, whose chairperson was appointed by the House, the chairs of the permanent subject committees are elected by the committee members. This process is really just a formality though, as preliminary discussions will have already taken place at the Business Committee, which met last night, with positions on committees informally negotiated between parties behind the scenes.

What happens now?
Even though the Government has reinstated all business from the last Parliament it can move substantive amendments to legislation at the select committee stage or at the Committee of the whole House stage, by way of Supplementary Order Paper. The new Government may also vote against certain bills progressing any further on a case-by-case basis as they come up for debate. It will also be interesting to see which select committees will have a Government majority. The political dynamic of each committee will affect the nature and scale of amendments to bills that can be voted through the select committee. Look out for the new select committee memberships - which will be posted on the Parliamentary website at any time.

IPANZ presentation

2008-12-08T14:47:00.000+13:00

Shelley and I presented at a recent lunchtime seminar for the Institute of Public Administration of New Zealand (IPANZ). We've had a few requests for our list of helpful links, which we gave to those who attended.

Cabinet Manual

Ministerial List

National Party’s post election Action Plan

Support party agreement with the Maori Party

Support party agreement with the ACT NZ Party

Support party agreement with United Future

2009 Legislation Programme: Requirements for Submitting Bids

Resumption of Cabinet Business - Cabinet Circular CO (08) 11

Negotiations between Political Parties to form a Government: Guidelines on Support from the State Sector

State Servants, Political Parties and Elections: Guidance for the 2008 Election Period: Briefing the Minister
Government Speeches, Press releases and announcements

Political Neutrality: What is 'political neutrality' and what does it mean in practice?

There are some arrangements that still to be announced. We thought it was useful to provide links to where that information has previously been held so when decisions are finalised it will be a good indicator of where to look.

Coalition, Confidence and Supply and Support and Cooperation Agreements – Administrative Arrangements (last Parliament)

Schedule of responsibilities delegated to Associate Ministers (last Parliament)

Cabinet Committees (last Parliament)

Whole of Government objectives (last Parliament)

For those that missed the seminar we are offering to tailor the presentation for public and private sector clients. It can be delivered during a lunchtime within your organisation. For more information about our seminars and how we can tailor our services to specific organisations please contact us at fivepeas@fivepeas.com.

Change of Government

2008-11-17T17:37:00.000+13:00

The election result on 8th November 2008 delivered a change of Government.

Over the weekend the National Party and its support parties announced they had signed agreements which are now available from the National Party website. ACT New Zealand, the Maori Party and United Future have each signed up to support National on confidence and supply in return for agreements to work together on policy objectives, set up task forces, establish select committee inquiries, and sit on Cabinet Committees. All support parties remain outside Cabinet.

Under the Labour-Progressive Coalition government, support parties also remained outside Cabinet. In practice this meant that Mr Peters and Mr Dunne, while not official members of cabinet committees, could still attend to speak to papers they submitted in their portfolio areas or for any item in which they had a portfolio interest.

Yesterday the incoming Prime Minister, John Key announced his Cabinet lineup and the allocation of portfolios according to their ranking, which can also now be viewed on the National Party website. After the Ministers are sworn in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet website will publish the official Ministerial list, the new membership of Cabinet Committees, and any other guidance material needed to complement the administration of the new Government.

Shelley and I are speaking at an IPANZ lunchtime seminar on 3rd December 2008 about procedures and processes relevant to the change of Government. We are also offering one hour seminars in December, tailored to the work of government and private sector agencies, and outlining the new arrangements in Government and Parliament. You can find out more about the seminars by emailing fivepeas@fivepeas.com.

Accountability to Government and Parliament

2008-06-25T16:49:00.000+12:00

One of the strengths of any organisation is having staff that understand the connection between their individual roles and the wider objectives of the organisation. Within the public sector, most of the work undertaken by public servants is related to the Whole of Government themes set by the Executive. For the past three years these objectives have been - "Families, Young and Old", "National Identity", "Sustainability" and "Economic Transformation".

When objectives are set accountability mechanisms need to be in place to monitor progress, ensure appropriate decision-making and further define roles and relationships. Accountability frameworks for public servants are unique in that public organisations are accountable not only to their Ministers, monitoring departments, central agencies and Cabinet, but they are also required to report to Parliament and select committees. Most of the work they do is under constant media and public scrutiny. Therefore public servants must learn to carry out their work effectively and appropriately within the established frameworks of accountability.

Shelley and I have devised a workshop series specifically for the public sector that focuses not just on explaining accountability frameworks and relationships, but also sets that discussion within the context of the policy development and legislative processes. It includes a tailor-made presentation for clients based on their unique circumstances and specific accountabilities, be they a Crown entity, a government department or a State-owned enterprise.

We have been getting great feedback about the course and it has been a major focus for the company this year.

If you are interested in running a tailored accountability series within your Crown entity or monitoring department then please contact Shelley or Jayne at fivepeas@fivepeas.com.

New MOO cards

2008-06-25T15:28:00.000+12:00

As part of our new "sophisticated" marketing strategy, Jayne and I ordered funky new business cards from MOO! We chose an arty photo of Parliament Buildings that Jayne's fiance Glynn took, cropped it, and used the image for the front of the card with our details on the reverse. We are pretty impressed with how easy it was to upload our image and order our mini-cards on-line, and even more impressed when they arrived in the post a week later from the UK. Check out the photo we chose and let us know what you think.

life inside the beehive

2008-06-25T14:14:00.000+12:00

I've been asked to present on 3 July 2008 at a lexisnexis conference entitled Turning Policy into Legislation. My topic is called The Inner Sanctum: The Role of the Minister's Office and will focus on the mechanics behind policy development and how it relates to the role of Ministers' Offices in the Beehive. This complements the purpose of Fivepeas Limited, by increasing the general level of understanding about the practicalities of the Machinery of Government.

After spending several years in the Beehive and being involved in numerous legislative projects, its good to be able to convey to others the reality of turning policy into legislation from the perspective of a private secretary. Life in the Beehive can seem like a bit of mystery to others, but really its just a bunch of dedicated individuals working together to make things happen.

Shelley and I are looking forward to the opportunity of catching up with old work colleagues from the Office of the Clerk and the Parliamentary Counsel Office, and meeting up with other attendees.

the fivepeas story

2008-03-14T13:51:00.000+13:00

Fivepeas specialises in demystifying parliamentary and government processes - hence the five 'P's', representing the five areas we offer training in - Parliament, politics, policy, procedure and processes. Five peas is also a personal reference to five friends who worked together in the Select Committee Office in the late 90's.

Jayne is the brainchild behind the business, but her primary motivation was financial necessity - she resigned from her job at the Ministry of Justice in 2006 to start up a web company, see http://www.thelifeboxarchive.blogspot.com/, and soon realised that a dedicated caffeine habit requires an independent income source. For years Jayne and I had talked about the potential to use what we've learned to help others better understand how Parliament and Government work. So this was a great opportunity to work together on a new project and take on the challenge of self employment.

Fivepeas offers standard in-house training packages on the following topics:

Machinery of Parliament
Machinery of Government
Working with select committees
Accountability to Parliament and Government.

Each standard training session can be tailored to the individual needs of our clients, and we also offer small group sessions and individual mentoring on a specific topic or piece of work.

Between us Jayne and I have a very solid understanding of the policy development, legislative, and other key public accountability processes. Our mix of practical public sector experience and IT knowledge means we offer our clients tool-based, technology driven learning solutions through individually tailored, interactive, example-based training sessions.

Our primary clients are Government departments and Crown entities, but our objective in 2008 is to take the model we've developed from the public to the private sector. We want private businesses to realise the advantage of understanding public processes, we want to teach them when and how they can directly influence policy outcomes, and enable them to work more effectively within those processes.

making laws more accessible to all

2008-02-07T13:23:00.000+13:00

Back this afternoon from another awesome kiwifoo experience in Warkworth, north of Auckland. Some discussions there about the use of the internet to provide better accessibility to legislation and policy issues before Parliament. As well as working on my web start up I am a part-time consultant training others about the Machinery of Government and Parliament, so I am supportive of initiatives that help demystify the evolution of policy and the law.

Much work has already been done by those responsible for the administration of Parliament and the legislative process to ensure that legislation is available in an up-to-date digital format for the public to view over the internet at www.legislation.govt.nz. However, the legislation is more meaningful set in context - what stage is it at? has it been amended? what did the select committee think about the bill?

Parliament through its website www.parliament.nz is now aggregating information in a more meaningful way for members of the public, media, lobby groups and even the MPs themselves. For example, you can search on the Parliamentary site for the Copyright Bill . If you click on that link you see a quick summary of the bill's progress to date, and if look to the right under the downloads panel you can access a copy of the latest version of the bill. It's called "Bill 102-2", which essentially means it was the 102nd bill of this Parliament and that it's the second (-2) version of the bill as amended by the select committee. From this page you can also access the First Reading debate and see what the MPs said in the House when the Bill was first introduced. You can view the select committee's report on its consideration recommending changes to the bill and setting out the reasons why. In a relatively recent development a select committee summary links to a page where you can access all the submissions received and advice provided by officials to the select committee. One MP has already circulated proposed amendments for debate at Committee of the Whole House stage (the last opportunity for amendments before the bill is passed into law) - see SOP 154. SOP stands for Supplementary Order Paper - effectively an advertisement of proposed amendments to bills in draft form. All parties can circulate amendments by way of SOP, including the Government. If accepted by a majority in Parliament they will be incorporated into the bill.

Most people rely on others to interpret the processes and policy developments for them, rather than seek information from the original source. However, if you want it straight from the horse's mouth so to speak - try exploring the Parliamentary website and check out all the party websites. Ministerial press releases and speeches are aggregated at www.beehive.govt.nz and you can even stream question time live to your desktop.

Some ability to decipher the legal language, the processes and political spin will still be required to help demystify what's going on in relation to certain policy issues, but the Parliamentary website is certainly a great leap forward in making the laws and Parliament more accessible to us all.