Those of you who were watching the House this afternoon would have seen that the Government blocked my attempt to ask questions about the Minister of Local Government’s travel.
Here are the questions he doesn’t want to answer.
Primary Question:
How much time did he spend in meetings related to his portfolio on his fact-finding mission to the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada?
Supplementaries:
- When he said “I didn’t go into this trip lightly. I thought long and hard about it and knew I would have to justify it”, how did he justify spending only 13 and a half hours in meetings related to his portfolio?
- What value did the public get from him spending more time in private arrangements than in meetings related to his portfolio, given he has said “the public can judge whether they get value for money from Rodney Hide MP/Minister”?
- Did he accuse John Key of being a do-nothing Prime Minister before or after his 12 day trip to the UK, Canada and the US during which he spent half as much time in lunches and breakfasts as he did in official ministerial meetings?
Here’s what North Shore Mayor Andrew Williams had to say:
Aucklanders will be fascinated to learn that, according to the official trip diary, Rodney Hide spent around 10 hours on Auckland governance, three and a half hours on regulatory reform, four and a half hours on ACT party policy, one hour in media interviews, and seven and a half hours having breakfast and lunch with his tour party who accompanied him on the trip.
When you break it all down, the trip which is estimated to have cost over $100,000 for the Minister, his companion, and two staff members, bought the taxpayer around 19 hours of official meetings and discussions over 12 days, and Aucklanders can judge for themselves whether they got value for money.
Here is the mayor’s full press release which has Rodney Hide’s report to Cabinet on his trip.
Mayor Williams is not the Minister’s favourite person. (Perhaps less so than me.) Hide was forced to withdraw and apologise in question time after calling the mayor mad.
Update: Hansard is now up.
One wedding, a dozen breakfasts,and Universal City
Nobody places much credence on what Mayor Williams has to say. Hon Rodney Hide attempted to table all reports on his trip, which I think attracted an objection from the Opposition benches. I don’t remember the Government stifling any discussion, it may have been the speaker ruling questions out of order. I think you are crying Wolf!! I don’t unfortunately have access to Hansard.
Wow, talk about getting it easy. That works out to be less than two hours work a day. Man I want his job.
Richard, as usual Hide plays the man not the ball when caught out. Seems the trip costs are light, not including the full costs of the trip for all four in the tour party, which includes the DIA CE. Yet again, Hide seems to be trying to pull the wool.
I don’t understand. Hide had passed the super city legislation – why did he need to go and gather facts???
Junket.
I don’t know if you are able to dismiss Williams’ statement so simply Richard. He backs it with documents obtained under the OIA, available online at Scoop if you want to check yourself.
As for the the attempted tabling of the reports in Parliament, well I’ve not got time to check Hansard myself either, perhaps a Labour MP could recall what happened?
Just heard Hide on the radio trying to downplay the cost to taxpayers claiming it only cost $50k, before going on to admit that DIA weighed in more money to pay for the Chief Executive to go along – Hello? That is tax payer too, Minister.
And the bill to ministerial services only came down because Hide repaid the costs for his girlfriend. But that was after saying that he would do it again, and that she had done the country a great service by keeping him happy at the wedding and Universal studios. Why couldn’t the CE have helod the Ministers hand while riding Jurassic Park?
Beyond that, what have us Aucklanders learned about the substance of the trip? Absolutely nothing. Because there was no substance.
The other question in my mind is that Hide said on radio his trip cost less than $47k for himself and his staff member. Did his girlfriend live on fresh air for 12 days? And what about the ground transport costs? Did they walk everywhere And what about the cost to the taxpayer of the DIA guy? Add another $25k maybe for him. So we’re up to maybe $80k in total?
oh dear Mr Morgan. Nobody takes Mr Hide seriously any more, I am sure you meant to say?
10 hours in 20+ days? 10 hours is probably less time than he would have spent in the bathrooms over there, on the toilet, or admiring his reflections.
What was he doing the rest of the time? Just funny but not appropriate Trevor about I suppose…
Yes Phil. I was watching question time today. The expression on Hide’s face after you asked your question said it all.
Quite threatening and ugly!
“funny but not appropriate Trevor” My kingdom for an outtakes category, I’ve love to know what he wrote…
Doesn’t take much imagination Spud.
welcome back Tim.
I thought the Rodster did well .. even said he would table his trip notes and expenses, which confused you all ???
Lookwood has told you guys time and time again .. ask the question properly so they can,t have an out, in other words, stop the snide remarks.
What’s the story with this bit in the Nat/ACT coalition agreement (pge 3) ?
If the topics are related to their ministerial roles, then surely research is already funded. If not, why is the ACT party getting special funding for research into areas it has no parliamentary responsibility for, where is the money for ACT’s research coming from , how much is it, and why exactly doesn’t ACT pay for it’s own damn research?
Is this sort of government funding of party research standard? If so, why have it in the agreement?
I’ve never understood it, but the stuff out today had some of Hide’s o/seas meetings touted as ACT party something or rathers, which reminded me of it.
jabba, not so. Said he would table the “budget”. A million miles – or maybe $50k – away from the trip budget. Let’s see if he has the kahunas to table to post trip reconciliation lodged with Ministerial Services. Would show us the actual cost, not the budgeted cost or the estimated cost. Nah, he’s not that dumb.
@Anne LOL
@ j, abba – hi 
hi spud.
So Phil, it’s good to know you are a supporter of Mr Williams. If he decides to run a “super mayor” or Len Browns no2, will you back him??
Richard, are you employed by Key or the National pary, maybe you’re one of his spid dr.’s cos you spin everything around to make NACT look good… Labour objected because the paper was already avaliable and Smith has already said that documents available shouldn’t be tabled after this was clarified I think there was no objection or the Smith didn’t allow it, I don’t remember exactly…. On a tangetial note, the speaker seems to have selective hearing when Hide speaks, he didn’t hear Hide call Williams Mad and he didn’t hear Hide say that the paper was publicly available when he sought leave. I can also recall an instance when Hide abused the Point of order process and he was only warned after Labour (mallard I think) pointed it out….
Yep, as I said on another thread, it’s all very well to point the finger at Labour, but they all do it! That’s a fact.
Hi, sorry I have been absent from this thread. I got tied up with other stuff yesterday.
@ Richard Morgan 4.32 – The Government did stifle discussion. They denied my request for leave to ask Hide questions about his trip. I thought Hide might have insisted on the chance to answer the questions, but strangely not! nOexit is right – Trevor objected to Hide’s offer to table his trip documents because they are already in the public domain – Mayor Williams OIAed them and they were on the web with his press release. This relates to the ongoing issue with the Speaker insisting that members not table documents already in the public domain.
Hansard is up now: http://www.parliament.nz/en-NZ/PB/Business/QOA/2/e/4/49HansQ_20091210_00000003-3-Finance-Minister-Statements.htm
@j abba 10.10pm – I know Mayor Williams is the mayor the Right loves to hate. But in my view he has emerged as one of the most effective and consistent critics of the Government’s mis-handling of the super city. I reckon he is doing a pretty good job of holding the Govt to account on behalf of the people of North Shore.
If you watch Lockwood during Q time, you will see,, on many occasions, a silly smirk on his face. It’s not because he is stupid, but he can’t hear what some are saying due to the constant noise bombarding him from both the left and the right .. mainly his left. I only just caught Hide suggesting Williams is mad as well so I don’t blame Smith.
Smith also suggested that there may have been things (documents) that Hide could table that were NOT in the public domain which is why he offered it to Labour to be tabled.
I have heard Williams (on the TV news) being incredibly rude to Hide at public meetings which is poor form for a mayor of a large part of Auckland. I’m stunned it has taken Hide so long to fight back.
Hi j, abba
Yes sometimes it’s a cringing at noise smirk, but other times he actually looks amused.
jabba, you’re surprised it has taken Rortney so long to fight back? Maybe he just reached the hard bit and had to stop digging? For my money, Williams has done a brilliant job holding this sleazy government to account over the super city. Remember, Aucklanders didn’t want it, weren’t asked about it, were refused a referendum over it, and now have to wear it. I know who is the democrat and who is the tyrant in this contest.
jennifer .. I live in Franklin and I never asked for it and our little community will get shafted. Hell, when we (Waiuku) combined with Puke, they even shafted us so we will put on our seat belts and wait for the crash.
The thing is, this sort of thing has been spoken about for years. You say Aucklanders don’t want it .. is that all Aucklanders or 90% .. 70% .. 60% .. 20% who don’t want it?
What would a referendum achieve other than more delays or simply stay with the status quo (not the band).
We pay our “leaders” both local and national to make decisions .. they are being made so that is the way it is.
Just reading through the debate it sounds like Joyce did a pretty good job answering for the Minister of Finance. I think he’s got his eye on that role.
labour had better be careful jabury .. Bills “power” is almost gone .. joyce and s power are just waiting and they will both be a far bigger threat than Bill.
As long as Joyce isn’t transport minister any more I’ll be happy.
I would suggest he is close to being Finance Minister
Ditching a finance minister is not something done lightly though. Never looks good.
true .. but Bill has had his “moments” that have taken his previous strong position to one that is .. suspect .. time to go
Well what do you expect from a Yellow-Jacketed Weasel that is Rodney Hide? Personally Im not at all surprised that the “Perk-buster” is reluctant to explain his actions.
It is a typical display of hypocrisy from Rodney Hide. Good on You Twyford for confronting the Weasel!