Watch web for select chatter

By ADAM GIFFORD

The controversy over comments Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias made to a select committee in Britain in May has highlighted how far the New Zealand Parliament lags behind its UK equivalent in the internet age.

But the next government may find previously obscure deliberations exposed to the public gaze via the internet and IT systems.

Elias' frank answers to questions put to her by the constitutional affairs committee - questions also asked in the same session of Attorney General Margaret Wilson - were posted as a raw transcript on the British Parliament's website.

The committee was considering the British Government's plans for a new supreme court.

Elias said she turned down an invitation to participate in the steering committee setting up the New Zealand Supreme Court "because of my view that communication between Judiciary and the Executive and Parliament needs to be formal and needs to be public and I was not prepared for the Judiciary to participate in committee discussions in camera in a back room".

An example of failings in IT systems was her attempt to get the court's annual report published on a website, which would have saved a $60,000 printing bill.

"Getting that on a website has proved almost impossible. It has taken months and it is not a ministerial priority ... it is like pulling hen's teeth," Elias said.

"We have no power at all. I cannot commission a review of our IT security, and I have been asking the ministry to do that ever since we have had some very bad leaks, and real anxiety being expressed by the judges."

In New Zealand, select committee reports are now put online when they are reported to the House, but transcripts of hearings or written submissions are never posted.

Wynne Price, reporting services clerk-assistant, said that could change under a website review now under way involving the Office of the Clerk, Parliamentary Service, the Parliamentary Counsel's Office and the General Assembly Library.

Interested parties have been interviewed about what Parliament's site should do and a specification is being written.

"The website has grown, but it is not easily accessible if you do not know how Parliament works," said Price, whose responsibilities include production of Hansard.

"The development will hopefully include the public part of select committees."

Price said the makeover of Parliament's web presence had become possible now because of the shift by parliamentary agencies last year from Word Perfect to Word 2000.

Andrew Beattie, the clerk-assistant for select committees, said his office had shortlisted four firms to run the electronic committee project, which aims to provide online access to select committee administration processes and resources.

"We are actively looking at either making transcripts or sound recordings of public hearings available online," Beattie said.

A 12-month pilot programme should start by October with the health and education and science select committees.

If approved, both the website redesign and the electronic committee project are likely to go ahead around the election, when Hansard is not produced.