Latest news with #ScrutinyWeek
Otago Daily Times
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
MPs scrutinise the cream cheese latte, among other things
Another Scrutiny Week is done and dusted, although some ministers and ministries came under more scrutiny than others. Take Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson, for example. Under the benign and avuncular chairmanship of Waitaki National MP Miles Anderson, the biggest tension of Mr Patterson's appearance before the primary production select committee came even before proceedings began, from the revelation there was such a thing as a cream cheese latte. It would be fair to say this discovery divided MPs' opinions as much as the likes of the Treaty Principles Bill — and not down party lines either. The Taieri New Zealand First list MP's appearance was primarily with his Minister for Rural Communities hat on, although no appearance anywhere by Mr Patterson would be complete without a mention or two of wool. Of which, more shortly. Mr Patterson's opening remarks emphasised rural communities is not a Cinderella enterprise set up to keep a backbencher busy: last year it reviewed more than 120 Cabinet papers to advise how decisions might impact country folk, as well as engaging directly and regularly with 12 other ministries. Mr Patterson — a farmer himself — said the four main issues he had focused his team on were health, education, connectivity and law and order. Now, it can be argued they are almost everyone's four main areas, but not everyone lives up the road from a school, down the road from a medical centre, has ultra-fast broadband or is within minutes of a police station. "Rural communities is not all about agriculture, it is about the needs of about 860,000 people," Mr Patterson said. Wellbeing — in particular mental wellbeing — was a focus of Mr Patterson's presentation. In the recent Budget the Rural Wellbeing Fund received an extra $2 million to double its funding over the next four years, and the government also committed $3m to Rural Support Trusts. "They have proven their worth, not just during adverse events but also managing farmers facing mental health issues ... there is a real issue with isolation and the issues that come with that," Mr Patterson said. "The trusts have credibility and are well led, we have confidence in them ... a lot of this is driven by volunteers, it is genuine peer-to-peer, farmers talking to farmers. That's their secret sauce and it is us leaning into that and saying you have something here that works, what can we do to help it?" The previous week Mr Patterson, along with almost every MP, had been at the annual Field Days event in Hamilton. There he got to push many things, not the least of which was wool — he and Finance Minister Nicola Willis were there as the not at all coincidental announcement was made by Kainga Ora that it had signed a deal for wool carpets to be supplied to state houses. A week later, Mr Patterson was keen to stress this was likely to be only the start — which was music to the ears of committee members like Mr Anderson, who until entering politics was a sheep farmer. "There are 130 procurement arms in government so there is significant ability to be able to leverage government procurement to assist the wool industry," Mr Patterson said. Scrutiny Week is an innovation of this Parliament and in the run-up to last week's hearings each select committee released a report as to how members thought it was going. The primary production committee noted it had spent eight hours on estimates hearings in 2024-25, and under the previous regime it heard from the relevant ministers and officials for just four hours. Even more impressive was the amount of time spent on annual reviews — up from four hours to 13-14. "Our committee has enjoyed the opportunity Scrutiny Weeks provide to dedicate time to hearing from ministers or entities, with that being the only focus for the week," the report said. "It has meant that we get to drill down on particular matters of concern, current issues, and spending without having to squeeze this in around normal business. Being able to focus on scrutiny, and take our time with hearings, has made the process less challenging than the previous approach of scheduling scrutiny hearings within normal meeting times." So far so good, but not everyone was happy. Opposition MPs — some of whom seem to feel that scrutiny was invented just for them — have complained (and not just on primary production) that they are not getting enough time for supplementary questions. Although not endorsing the idea, the committee suggested consideration be given to having an Opposition MP become its chairperson for scrutiny hearings could help avoid that perception. The social services and community committee (chaired by National Southland MP Joseph Mooney) reported in a similar vein, saying it had also increased its time on scrutiny, but warning its workload was already considerable so it had not been feasible to double that allocation of time. The report also noted that while Mr Mooney had allocated the majority of questions to non-government MPs, "some of us consider that a culture shift is still needed to honour the Opposition's role in leading scrutiny of the executive". The committee resolved to "continue to reflect on this over the parliamentary term," although good luck coming up with a definitive answer. The general tenor of all the reports was in similar vein: great concept but needs some tweaking, which seems a fair call. Anything that obliges the government to fully explain what it is up, to to the people who put them there, is welcome accountability — but it only means something if the level of questioning actually makes someone accountable. In the meantime, cream cheese latte anyone?
Newsroom
3 days ago
- Politics
- Newsroom
‘Reports of concern' rose 60 percent after Govt cut child safety contracts
Children's Minister Karen Chhour is defending higher reporting of possible harm against children in the months after her cost-cutting directives led to Oranga Tamariki dropping community agencies. The 11th-hour withdrawal of contracts a year ago, with only hours of notice over Matariki weekend, left the agencies having to try to find other providers to care for children in trouble, and led to a damning report from the Auditor-General. At a Scrutiny Week select committee hearing on Wednesday, Chhour faced questioning from opposition MPs over the impact of those cuts. Green Party MP Kahurangi Carter highlighted Oranga Tamariki's own numbers from a report before the social services committee that showed 'reports of concern' about children to the ministry rose by 58.7 percent for the second half of 2024 against numbers for the same period a year earlier. 'This occurred after your government cut or 'reprioritised' $120m from frontline community providers and $41.2m from Oranga Tamariki's back office in 2023-24, involving 403 job losses at OT.' Carter quizzed Chhour, from the Act Party, on further plans in the 2025-26 Budget to cut more in the back office and prevention. 'How can you justify continuing to hollow out a system in the face of such a dramatic surge in need under your watch,' she asked. Carter said the 58.7 percent increase was from 34,719 reports of concern in the second half of 2023 to 55,171 in the same period last year. Chhour's response? 'There are people within our communities and other government agencies that are concerned about our young people, making reports of concern – and I encourage that to continue because that's how we get oversight of our young people. 'Every report of concern is not necessarily something that Oranga Tamariki has to intervene in. We need to make sure that when that report of concern happens, if not by Oranga Tamariki it is addressed by other agencies.' She said the goal was to have the 'right people in the right places' to help, but not necessarily OT. Chhour hit out at Carter's questioning. 'To make the big assumption that reports of concern are caused by the Government – I find that quite concering. A report of concern means that a child has been put in a situation where someone believes that child is in a dangerous environment that needs support.' The rushed changes in mid-2024 to which agencies would have OT contracts to provide services for tamariki and rangatahi were the subject of one of the Auditor-General's harshest reports in years. It pointd to a cluster of poor practice, bad execution and near non-existent communication from the children's ministry in cutting around $60m in its contract spend, cancelling around 30 agencies' funding for 2024/25 and trying to strong arm others by not paying its bills on time. The 64-page inquiry report says Oranga Tamariki decision makers did not adequately establish what the changes would mean for the children needing care. Worse, the agency simultaneously moved last year to accentuate a policy of grabbing back from some providers all money it said they underspent and had instead put into their reserves. 'Previously, Oranga Tamariki had generally allowed providers to retain funding even if they had not achieved 100 percent of all contracted measures,' the Auditor-General's office said. 'For example, providers could move funding from under-utilised services to over-utilised services to meet demand.' The select committee hearing on Wednesday saw Labour's Willow-Jean Prime press Chhour over further cuts to community service providers. The minister told her the Auditor-General had a right to say what he said, but she believed the contracting process needed accountability. 'I do not accept what was happening previously and it could not continue … Contracts are not guaranteed. I do not apologise for making sure our contracts are meeting the needs of our young people … we need to make sure that money has been spent well.' Chhour faced questioning over her commitment to Māori children's needs, with MPs pointing out rangatahi make up 70 percent of those in care but just 30 percent of funding goes to Māori providers. 'I accept I'm responsible for every child. It does not matter what ethnicity.' Te Pāti Māori MP Mariemo Kapa-Kingi interjected: 'It has to matter.' Chhour: 'I'm responsible for all children who need help in care, all children who need help wrapped around them, not by their ethnicity … I'm not going to box a child …' Kapa-Kingi: 'Culture is a box minister?' The committee chair Joseph Mooney intervened, stopping the questioning. Kahurangi Carter told Chhour an Independent Children's Monitor report found Māori were over-represented and the system was still letting them down. Chhour said she did accept that report and OT shared the concerns about over-representation not only in children's protection statistics but in education and health.
Newsroom
3 days ago
- Politics
- Newsroom
Govt decision-less as court approves more coastline titles to Māori applicants
Māori have been granted rights over more of the southern North Island coastline under tighter new Supreme Court criteria, while the Cabinet enters its seventh month of indecision over an amending law. The latest High Court ruling over the coast from Kāpiti to Manawatū (Paekakariki to the Rangitikei River, and including Kapiti Island and islets) is unique because it takes a pivotal late 2024 Supreme Court ruling into account. It still makes a series of grants of customary marine title (CMT) at a time when the Government wants to restrict such coastal rights. The coalition has a bill before Parliament that would make it harder for iwi and hapū to prove continuous and exclusive use of waters under tikanga since 1840. The bill is designed, the Treaty Negotiations Minister Paul Goldsmith reportedly claimed, to mean only about 5 percent of the coast could be subject to CMT. It contains a provision making any judgments delivered since its introduction moot and would return such cases to new hearings. But after an urgent decision delivered by the Supreme Court went some way to meeting concerns the Government had over an earlier Court of Appeal judgment, Goldsmith paused the law change. Having promised to pass it by the end of 2024, he and colleagues have been seeking advice on whether it is still needed, with that process beginning in December. A High Court judge awarded six new areas of customary title that month on the other side of the North Island, down the southern Wairarapa coastline. She invited lawyers to submit to her on how the Supreme Court ruling in November might change her findings. Now another judge, taking into account the Supreme Court's refined and extended criteria, has done the same for the Kāpiti to Manawatū coast on the other side of the island. A spokesperson for Goldsmith said no decision had been reached by the Government on whether to progress its bill. The minister told Parliament's Māori Affairs select committee during Scrutiny Week on Tuesday he could not commit to a timeframe, even to say the Government could decide the bill's fate this year. 'We are actively turning our mind to it and we do want to resolve these issues sooner rather than later. 'Broadly we are concerned about the whole framework that's developed. I'm worried that we could see the way it's currently set up we could continue having court case for many, many years and could still be testing it in 2040. We are turning our minds towards how we could come up with a more efficient process.' Goldsmith said it could either leave the law as it is, with the Supreme Court's view prevailing, or could amend the Government's bill to continue to change the existing law but 'recognising' elements of that court's views. In CMT cases, a process the Crown made Māori undertake when Parliament passed the Marine and Coastal Areas (Takutai Moana) Act in 2011, iwi or hapū apply via the courts or direct to a minister to have customary rights over inner waters and coastline recognised. Rights of the public to access, swim, use boats and fish are not affected. But the commercial fishing industry has been an 'intervener' in various Marine and Coastal Areas Act cases before the courts, arguing local Māori either did not have exclusive use, or continued use of water under tikanga (custom) since 1840. Industry lawyers have argued that commercial fishing fleets have lawfully fished in these zones, making the exclusivity criteria redundant. The fishing-industry-friendly coalition Government has taken notice and its amendment law, which has already gone through the select committee process, is an attempt to make Māori claims to CMT more difficult. Now, with a tighter criteria on the table via the Supreme Court, the Cabinet must decide if its law and its restrictions are even needed. One line of thought is that the Government should now back off the law and avoid more controversy with Māori after the intensity of opposition of the Treaty Principles Bill. A map provided to the High Court by the Attorney-General's lawyers showing overlapping claims in the Kāpiti to Manawatū coastline. In this latest Kāpiti-Manawatū coastline case, Justice Christine Grice has in a 600-page judgment weighed the Supreme Court's definitive views on tikanga, exclusivity and undisturbed use of waters into account and made CMT orders in favour of five groupings. Two, Te Ātiawa and Ngāti Raukawa, win exclusive customary rights, and to share rights with other tribal groupings. One iwi, Muaūpoko, is granted shared rights with two individual hapū or whānau claimants. The applicants' rights to CMT over waters beside the coastline are, however, all restricted down from the 12-nautical mile limit sought to between a kilometre and a nautical mile only. That is despite the marine and coastal area being legally the area between the high-water springs and the 12 nautical mile limit of the territorial sea. A bid by Te Ātiawa for exclusive CMT over Kapiti Island was rejected by the judge, who found Ngāti Toa had clear rights to the island, although Te Ātiawa succeeded in winning shared rights over the 5km channel between the island and its area on the facing coastline. Justice Grice's judgment follows hearings between March and November 2024 and late submissions in February 2025. She says it considers 'historically contested events and the groups' circumstances, in particular their relationships with the takutai moana and how those relationships have been expressed through to the present time – in the context of the application of the statutory test for CMT as recently reformulated by the Supreme Court. 'The final determination recognises that five applicant groups are entitled to either shared exclusive, or exclusive CMT as various specific locations across the hearing area.' Another 10 groups claiming parts of the coastline areas have chosen not to go through the courts, but made applications to ministers and officials under what is known as the Crown engagement pathway. Attorney-General Judith Collins is represented in the court actions, with her lawyer telling Justice Grice she acts 'in the interests of all the public (including Māori) to assist the court to interpret the MACA Act, assuming an 'independent aloofness''. Witnesses and claimants told the High Court that for their ancestors there had been no line between land and sea. 'From the Kāpiti Coast they looked seaward to Kapiti Island and beyond to the top of the South Island. The moana which took their waka to those places was a continuation of the land – it was a highway,' Justice Grice writes. The MACA law was the National Government's response in 2011 to the highly controversial 2004 Foreshore and Seabed Act brought in by Helen Clark's Labour Government after the appeal court at the time found Māori could claim customary ownership rights of their shoreline and inshore waters. The 2004 law extinguished any customary rights and vested the foreshore and seabed in the Crown, leading to widespread Māori protest and ultimately the formation of the Māori Party. National's compromise MACA law seven years later declared no one owned the foreshore and seabed – not Māori and not the Crown. It restored any customary rights extinguished by the 2004 law, and provided instead for Māori groups to apply for Customary Marine Title recognising that certain areas were held by them and giving them influence over uses in those zones. It covers the area between high-water springs and the 12 nautical mile limit of the territorial sea. Iwi and hapū around the country have lodged more than 200 court applications for customary marine title. About 390 groupings had separately chosen to seek CMT in direct negotiations with the Crown but a Waitangi Tribunal report this month recorded none had been concluded and just seven were near completion. Timeline
Scoop
4 days ago
- Business
- Scoop
MPs Caught Swearing As David Seymour Faces Questions On Regulatory Reviews
Minister for Regulation, David Seymour, has denied regulatory reviews carried out by the ministry have been for anyone's political benefit, in a tense select committee hearing at Parliament in which two Labour MPs had to apologise for swearing. Seymour appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee as part of Scrutiny Week, to face questions on the budget for the Ministry of Regulation. So far, the ministry has carried out reviews into the early childhood education, agricultural and horticultural products, and hairdressing sectors. A fourth review into telecommunications has also been announced. Labour MP Duncan Webb questioned Seymour over whether he or the ACT Party had any connections to donors or lobbyists in those sectors, who would stand to benefit from the reviews. "There's a real concern that it looks like there's an appearance of regulatory reviews being chosen to benefit parties connected politically," Webb said. "How can we have confidence that the decisions are not politically influenced, and are made entirely on the basis of where [the] best wins and values for New Zealanders are." Seymour accused Webb of being improper with his questioning. "The idea that we decided to do a review of the early childhood sector because someone may or may not, I'm not even sure, have donated to the ACT Party a long time ago is frankly fatuous," he said. "My main interaction with the dairy industry is probably through a flat white." Ministry chief executive Gráinne Moss said the review into agricultural and horticultural products was suggested by the ministry itself, to the minister. Webb said the minister should have no part to play in deciding what sectors to review. 'For f***'s sake' - MPs caught swearing The session got off to a tense start, after Labour's Deborah Russell was heard saying "for f***'s sake" during Seymour's opening remarks. National's Ryan Hamilton raised it as a point of order. While committee chair Cameron Brewer was fine to carry on, Seymour made Russell repeat herself. She then withdrew her comment and apologised. Later on, Webb accused Seymour of "making s*** up" regarding the ministry's work on flour dust standards. Seymour also bristled at Labour MP Megan Woods interrupting Moss while she gave an answer, and threatened that ACT would release a video of the Labour MPs' behaviour. After the hearing, Seymour said he was "astonished" by the swearing. "The amount of swearing from Labour MPs, I've never seen that before. Clearly, they're very angry about something, but they were just a rabble. Their various accusations were completely untrue. And really, you have to wonder if these guys are taking it seriously."
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Labour MPs caught swearing in heated hearing
By Giles Dexter of RNZ Minister for Regulation David Seymour has denied regulatory reviews carried out by the ministry have been for anyone's political benefit, in a tense select committee hearing at Parliament in which two Labour MPs had to apologise for swearing. Seymour appeared before the Finance and Expenditure Committee as part of Scrutiny Week, to face questions on the budget for the Ministry of Regulation. So far, the ministry has carried out reviews into the early childhood education, agricultural and horticultural products, and hairdressing sectors. A fourth review into telecommunications has also been announced. Labour MP Duncan Webb questioned Seymour over whether he or the Act Party had any connections to donors or lobbyists in those sectors, who would stand to benefit from the reviews. "There's a real concern that it looks like there's an appearance of regulatory reviews being chosen to benefit parties connected politically," Webb said. "How can we have confidence that the decisions are not politically influenced, and are made entirely on the basis of where [the] best wins and values for New Zealanders are." Seymour accused Webb of being improper with his questioning. "The idea that we decided to do a review of the early childhood sector because someone may or may not, I'm not even sure, have donated to the ActParty a long time ago is frankly fatuous," he said. "My main interaction with the dairy industry is probably through a flat white." Ministry chief executive Gráinne Moss said the review into agricultural and horticultural products was suggested by the ministry itself, to the minister. Webb said the minister should have no part to play in deciding what sectors to review. 'For f***'s sake' - MPs caught swearing The session got off to a tense start, after Labour's Deborah Russell was heard saying "for f***'s sake" during Seymour's opening remarks. National's Ryan Hamilton raised it as a point of order. While committee chair Cameron Brewer was fine to carry on, Seymour made Russell repeat herself. She then withdrew her comment and apologised. Later on, Webb accused Seymour of "making s*** up" regarding the ministry's work on flour dust standards. Seymour also bristled at Labour MP Megan Woods interrupting Moss while she gave an answer, and threatened that Act would release a video of the Labour MPs' behaviour. After the hearing, Seymour said he was "astonished" by the swearing. "The amount of swearing from Labour MPs, I've never seen that before. Clearly, they're very angry about something, but they were just a rabble. Their various accusations were completely untrue. And really, you have to wonder if these guys are taking it seriously."
