Yesterday I blogged about John Key not answering a bunch of written parliamentary questions that I had put to him before Christmas. Well, that obviously rang a few bells over in Key’s office because the answers were hand-delivered to my office yesterday afternoon. Credit where it is due, Key has fronted up, and from a quick scan, it looks like he has given pretty comprehensive answers to most of my questions. I’ll read through them over the next few days and blog further, but in the meantime, kudos to Key for fronting up.
Red Alert
Posts Tagged ‘ministerial services’
Will Key ever answer questions?
Posted by Chris Hipkins on February 9th, 2010Parliament resumes today after the summer recess. Hopefully that will prompt John Key to finally stump up with answers to the Written Parliamentary Questions I put to him before Christmas. I asked him 67 questions late last year. In all cases he said he couldn’t give me an answer within the 6 days required by the written questions system, but he assured me I’d get the information as soon as possible.
It’s now 8 weeks since I asked the questions, but alas no answers have arrived. The questions were legitimate questions asking him to account for the spending of his ministers at a time when they were telling us all to tighten our belts.
We saw last year that National Ministers do not practice what they preach on fiscal responsibility and the public deserves to know what they are spending, e.g. the Bill English rort to finance his family home and the last minute changes to let ministers use self-drive cars meant to help them serve their electorates in Wellington.
Labour answered these types of questions when asked by a National Opposition so what is Key hiding?
Here is a quick summary of the topics that I asked Key about:
- Pay rises for staff working in Ministerial offices (remember other public servants have a wage freeze)
- Use of VIP cars during National’s first year in office
- Refurbishment costs for ministerial offices
- Spending on gifts, beer, wine and spirits by ministers
- Purchase of self-drive vehicles and related issues
- Issues relating to Key’s changes to ministerial housing allowances
John Key talks a lot about transparency and accountability but it is all talk. The reality is neither he nor his ministers think that the rules that apply to others apply to them. Key’s ongoing refusal to answer basic written parliamentary questions just proves that.
Ministers splash out on new self-drive cars
Posted by Chris Hipkins on January 5th, 2010In another bold (if not unsurprising) display of hypocrisy, the new National-led government splashed out on a bunch of new self-drive cars upon taking up office. Figures obtained under the Official Information Act show that National purchased 20 new self-drive cars following the election at an average cost of $44,501, a total spend of $890,031.
By comparison in 2005 the then Labour government purchased 15 self-drive cars at an average cost of about $37,500. Between 2006 and the 2008 election, 17 cars were purchased at an average cost of just over $40,000.
So why the significant increase in the average cost of cars? It can’t be because car prices are going up. Stats NZ figures show car prices remained static during that period and demand was lower, so it really should have been a buyer’s market.
It’s yet another example of the National-led government living the high life while they tell hard-working Kiwis to tighten their belts and prepare for more cuts to public services.
I’ve asked John Key more questions about self-drive cars, including the latest change that allows ministers to keep them in Wellington, but alas so far he has refused to answer.
Ministers get pay rises despite freeze
Posted by Chris Hipkins on December 29th, 2009In November 2009 John Key argued that MPs and Ministers need to lead by example when it came to tightening our belts:
“As I said in January when I raised the issue with the [Remuneration] Authority, it is only right that in these changing economic times, as ordinary New Zealanders tighten their belts, MPs and Ministers must also play their part”.
However despite the rhetoric, a few weeks before Christmas, four of his ministers got a pay rise thanks to Key’s new funding regime for ministerial residences, with more of them set to benefit as they enter the new system over the next 12 months.
Based on a comparison of their previous claims and their new allowances, all four of the first ministers to enter the new regime get a tax free pay increase. Pita Sharples gets $173 per week, David Carter $204 per week, and Maurice Williamson $84 per week. It’s harder to calculate the fourth minister, Nathan Guy, because he only recently seems to have started claiming.
All of them are in the same residence that they were in as MPs and in the early part of their ministerial tenures. They previously got a parliamentary allowance based on receipts to a maximum of $24,000. They now get $30,000 with no need for receipts.
Even more ridiculous, if any of them wants to really pump up their allownace all they need to do is move house. Then their new tax-free allowance increases from $30,000 to $37,500, even if they moved into a house that was actually cheaper than their present one!
At a time when John Key and his colleagues have frozen wages for others, it’s a bit rich for them to then grant themselves a new housing allowance that amounts to more than some ordinary Kiwis would earn in a year.
Question watch #1
Posted by Chris Hipkins on December 21st, 2009On the 8th of December I lodged a number of Written Parliamentary Questions to John Key in his capacity as Minister Reponsible for Ministerial Services. They all involved spending on services provided to ministers (eg. self-drive cars, VIP cars, ministerial housing etc). I had assumed that given the “Double Dipton” debacle they’d be keen to be seen as open and transparent.
So far John Key has replied to all of them with the same answer: “I am unable to provide the member with the information requested in the timeframe available. I will provide the member with the answer as soon as possible.”
All of the questions were lodged on the 8th of December, so he’s already had several weeks. In almost all cases there are examples of similar questions having been asked of Helen Clark in the past. I’m sure John Key isn’t going to argue that he should be subject to a lower standard of accountability than his predecessor, so I’ll look forward to getting his answers before he takes off for his holiday in Hawaii.
Should Red Alert out ministerial staff who make comments
Posted by Trevor Mallard on December 12th, 2009I recently outed someone who commented on Red Alert on an issue they were very close to but used a pseudonym. Admin thought it was unusual. Clare told me she wanted to talk about it. Grant was more direct. I was admonished.
But now an interesting issue has arisen.
Ministerial staffers are commenting on Red Alert from the Beehive - during normal working hours – using pseudonyms.
We have always known they monitor our blog. Several Ministers read it daily as well.
But is it really part of their job to comment? And if it is should they be transparent as we are when we post here and comment on other blogs.
And if they aren’t should we out them?
Interesting issue – causing debate in our team. We would welcome your views.
