A.2 Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2005 Parliamentary Service Commission Te Komihana O Te Whare Paremata Presented to the House of Representatives pursuant to Schedule 2, Clause 11 of the Parliamentary Service Act 2000 Report of the Parliamentary Service Commission Membership and Committees The Parliamentary Service Commission comprises representatives from all parties represented in Parliament. The membership of the Parliamentary Service Commission from 1 July 2004 was: Rt. Hon Jonathan Hunt, MP (Chairperson) until March 2005 Hon Margaret Wilson, MP (Chairperson) from March 2005 Peter Brown, MP (representing the NZ First party) Gerry Brownlee, MP (representing the Leader of the Opposition, and the National party) until August 2004 Hon Mark Burton, MP (representing the Leader of the House, and the Labour party) John Carter, MP (representing the National party) Rod Donald, MP (representing the Green party) Hon Peter Dunne, MP (representing the United Future New Zealand party) Jill Pettis, MP (representing the Labour Party) Simon Power, MP (representing the National party) from August 2004 Hon Matt Robson, MP (representing the Progressive Coalition party) Hon Richard Prebble, MP (representing the ACT New Zealand party) until July 2005 Rodney Hide, MP (representing the ACT New Zealand party) from July 2005 Tariana Turia, MP (representing the M7ori party) The House Committee was a committee of the Commission and its members comprised: Ann Hartley, MP (Chair) Marc Alexander, MP Deborah Coddington, MP Darren Hughes, MP Sue Kedgley, MP Pita Paraone, MP Pansy Wong, MP Sub-committees Security John Carter, MP (Chair) Ron Mark, MP Jill Pettis, MP Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2005 Parliamentary Service Commission 2 Te Komihana O Te Whare Paremata Arts Purchasing Hon David Benson-Pope, MP Rt. Hon Jonathan Hunt, MP (until March 2005) John Key, MP Members' Services Hon David Benson-Pope, MP John Carter, MP Ron Donald, MP Hon Peter Dunne, MP The Hon Mark Burton, MP, and John Carter, MP, were the Parliamentary Service Commission appointees to the Parliamentary Corporation pursuant to section 29(1)(c) of the Parliamentary Service Act 2000. Ten meetings of the Parliamentary Service Commission were held throughout the year ending 30 June 2005. Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2005 Parliamentary Service Commission 3 Te Komihana O Te Whare Paremata Making monthly financial information public In the interests of openness and accountability, the Commission decided that monthly financial information concerning the six Parliamentary Service departmental appropriations and the 11 non-departmental (including members' communications and travel and party and support budgets for the parliamentary parties) would be put on the Speaker's website. Financial information is also included for the Executive Wing refurbishment and for members' salaries and expenses. The information can be accessed at: www.speaker.parliament.govt.nz/Publications.htm. Parliamentary appropriations review The Parliamentary Service Act 2000 stipulates that a review of the parliamentary appropriations will take place at least once in each parliamentary session. The second review committee, chaired by John Goulter and with committee members Hon Doug Kidd and Hon Margaret Shields, published their report, Resourcing Parliament: Parliamentary Appropriations Review, in November 2004. The Commission discussed in detail the recommendations of the report, which centred on out-of-Parliament offices, information and communications technology and training and development opportunities for members' support staff. While some recommendations need further work at this point, progress has been made concerning training for support staff and guidelines for out-of-Parliament offices, which is discussed in more detail below. Progress has also been made by the five parliamentary agencies on collaborative ICT arrangements for the complex. Advertising paid for by Vote Parliamentary Service Media and public interest concerning advertising by members and parties paid for out of Vote Parliamentary Service prompted the Commission to reconsider the current guidelines. It was considered that there was a lack of clarity in the guidelines and the Commission spent a considerable amount of time discussing how to best amend the guidelines to ensure advertising guidelines, particularly newspaper advertising, would be clear to members and parties. However, given that the Auditor General's office was conducting its own investigation into Government and parliamentary publicity and advertising, the Commission decided to defer making any final decisions on guidelines until that report had been received. As the report was released 17 June 2005, the Commission has yet to study its recommendations. Out-of-Parliament office specification As mentioned above, the appropriations review report made a series of recommendations concerning the quality of out-of-Parliament offices leased by members. Most importantly, it was considered that the standard of office Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2005 Parliamentary Service Commission 4 Te Komihana O Te Whare Paremata accommodation was unsatisfactory for the member and their staff. As a response, the Commission assisted the Parliamentary Service to develop office specification guidelines to ensure health and safety issues for staff were considered when members were leasing premises. An office specification guideline was agreed to by the Commission in June this year. My predecessor, the Rt Hon Jonathan Hunt, left his position of Speaker in early March 2005, so I have come to the chair of the Parliamentary Service Commission somewhat late in the yearly cycle. However, I would like to pay a tribute to the good work done by Jonathan during his time as Chairperson of the Commission and to Commission members for their contributions. HON MARGARET WILSON, MP Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairperson of the Parliamentary Service Commission Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 2005 Parliamentary Service Commission 5 Te Komihana O Te Whare Paremata .