It’s starting to feel a lot like 1996 all over again. Another term of the Nats would be bad news for the institutions of democracy. We’ve had recent warnings on the state of the justice system, press freedom, and the public service.
Simon Bridges tried to block the release of a report on a Kiwirail proposal. The Ombudsman warns against flouting the Official Information Act. But it’s a well established pattern of behaviour with this government.
Marwick: “The other thing you can deduce from a three year battle over access to correspondence is that the most senior politician in the land probably had something to hide.”
Yesterday saw the release of the Obmudsman’s review of the operation of the OIA. I think it makes clear an unacceptable level of political interference in the process – albeit not at the level that was rampant in Dirty Politics.
The High Court recently found that Government and Tim Groser improperly considered Prof. Jane Kelsey’s application for information concerning the TPPA negotiations. The Nats aren’t happy. The Ombudsman isn’t happy. Tough.
I/S at No Right Turn writes on the latest abuse of the OIA process.
I/S at No Right Turn on the OIA into communications between Key and Glucina.
No Right Turn points out that the answer given by John Key in response to an Official Information Act request was completely inadequate legally. It doesn’t matter if he was in his guise of the infamous Parnell Pony Puller, or PM as he sometimes likes to call himself. He isn’t allowed to advise Rachael Glucina of the NZ Herald to attack his victim and then hide it behind his official role.
Anne Tolley was told about the prosecution of Beverley Sepuloni under the no surprises policy nearly a month before the news became public. Release of this information makes you wonder why we cannot be told the date that the Government was told about Mike Sabin’s difficulties.
The latest excuse for John Key deleting his texts wholesale is wafer-thin.
Jason Ede deleted his personal emails. Some of those emails concerned ministerial business and should therefore are public records. There is a fine of $5000 per email destroyed. Similarly the SIS was illegally refusing media requests that are OIAs. All as dodgy as hell. Time to charge some people violating public information acts?
Over at Public Address, Herald reporter David Fisher has written a long and fascinating piece on his experiences in getting access to public information. Short form – NZ has over the last 25 years gone from a good place to a very bad place indeed.
Thanks to Radio New Zealand, we now know that National got no real plan to address poverty, but also that they really, really don’t want to be honest about it.
As story after story comes out, it shows how much contempt for transparency and the law this government has, and how little it intends to be held to account.
It is clear to anyone who has read Dirty Politics that the National government illegally games the OIA process for political gain. Now we have Key’s confirmation of the fact.
The Act party, well known for rorts, dodgy deals, general corruption, and the poor calibre of their candidates, is doing it again. National gave their single novice MP an “under-secretary” position to allow Act to rort extra money from taxpayers. It also provides him with a position that is wholly unaccountable to parliament or the public via OIA.
Another day, and more evidence the National government is manipulating the OIA process. Judith Collins’ office processed an Official Information Act request in just two days. The problem here isn’t that someone got their response within two days – its that other people didn’t…
I have today sent an open letter to the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to ask why Mr Key is not required to attend her inquiry and to give evidence under oath. The letter is attached.
The use of clandestine SIS files as a weapon of partisan politics is needs to be investigated. John Key or his office discovered classified SIS files that were embarrassing to Phil Goff, got them declassified, then immediately told a right-wing blogger to seek those same newly-declassified files under the OIA, all as a means of smearing a political opponent.
So it turns out that Immigration released letters from David Cunliffe and Chris Carter in support of Donghua Liu. However, the Department of Internal Affairs refused to release the letters sent by Mr Williamson and Mr Banks under the privacy and commercial provisions in the Official Information Act. This looks like a blatantly political release decision to advance the interests of the government of the day. Transparency of official information applies to everyone, not just the government’s enemies.
Once again Big Film threatens NZ to do as it’s told, or they will take their toys and go home. Specifically, they don’t want negotiation documents released under OIA. Makes one wonder just what is in these documents. What are they afraid of do you think?
The Chief Ombudsmen has attacked the government’s moves to keep official information secret, calling them “highly dangerous”. The ongoing GCSB and John Banks scandals show just how important it is to be able to hold the government – at all levels – to account.
I/S at No Right Turn on Key’s made up numbers.
Darien Fenton has a bill in the ballot designed to put public ports back on the OIA.
It’s about time – there’s been no accountability or transparency at our ports for too long.
It will be interesting to see the government’s response.
We have a government department which has acted deliberately to thwart judicial and Ombudsman oversight, for reasons of its own convenience, apparently in violation of New Zealand law. The question is whether the Minister will act – or whether he will effectively endorse this situation with his silence.
Although the latest “scandal” the HoS and a couple of bloggers are getting excited about is a damp squib it does raise a few issues about the accountability and transparency of parliamentary services.
I think it’s time to add parliamentary services to the OIA.
More bad news for Gerry Brownlee today. No Right Turn has had confirmation that Gerry Brownlee makes his ‘policy’ up as he goes without seeking competent advice. This must be more than slightly terrifying to the people of Christchurch because Brownlee is currently their dictator by legislation in the rebuilding effort. His bulldozing ineptness is not just confined to buildings but is endemic to everything he does.
The day before Christmas, in what will surely be a forlorn attempt to bury the story, Bill English’s office has finally relented after months of resistance and released under the OIA papers on how the unknown Pacific Economic Development Agency was awarded a $4.8 million blank cheque in the Budget. This looks serious.
For the last few months, the Standard has been politely asking Treasury for their papers on the sale of Crown assets. To say they weren’t keen to share would be an understatement. We’ve managed to get a few papers of the papers, more are being withheld. These papers show what we’ve long suspected: the Government plans to force SOEs to issue bonds as a method of privatisation by stealth.
David Farrar has finally made a comment on my “Hey Chubby…” post. It raises more questions than it answers. So I ask some of the obvious questions, and conclude that he has forsaken the principles of “free speech” that he so enthusiastically espoused only a few years ago.
It looks like Nationals favourite pollster and blogging spinster has been sniffing around trying to find out who our authors are. So I guess I’ll have to gently castigate him yet again. Such a child, always reaching for the cookie jar..
In the process it appears that he has pissed off some journos, and it appears that David has acquired a new nickname.
Idiot/Savant has a great post in an aussie blog Larvatus Prodeo on the legal and operational differences between our Official Information Act 1982 […]
