At the beginning of this year, ministers started releasing their diaries – what are they getting up to?

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was the busiest minister with 188 meetings and events in March. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Kiwis have developed a keener interest in what the ministers they have elected are doing behind closed doors, according to the minister in charge of fostering an open and transparent Government, Chris Hipkins.

Late last year, he followed the lead of the Green Party – which announced its ministers and undersecretaries would be pro-actively releasing their diaries.

"The move helps build trust and confidence in government," Hipkins said at the time.
From January this year, all Cabinet ministers are required to release their diaries on a monthly basis.

"Frankly, in a transparent Government, why wouldn't we release the information so everyone could have access to it and could see it?" Hipkins told the Herald.

All 29 ministers inside, and outside, of Cabinet have complied with the new system, but some are quicker than others to release their diaries.

Māori Development Minister Nanaia Mahuta, for example, released her February diary on May 1 – almost a month after most other ministers released theirs for the same period.

All diaries for January and February are now online, with the diaries from March beginning to appear on the Government's website.

Hipkins, evidently, is leading by example and has released his diary for every month back to April last year.

The diaries show the scheduled meetings ministers have that relates to ministerial business, for example, meetings with heads of government agencies and other ministers.

Media interviews and speaking events are also included. But any meetings to do with a minister's political party, or meetings with constituents, are not included.

Busiest minister?

So, who is the busiest minister? According to the diaries, it's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by a country mile.

In February, she had 149 meetings and events recorded in her diary. These ranged from meetings with other ministers, media stand-ups, and speeches.

In March, that number was 188 – with an increased amount of activity after the Christchurch terror attacks on March 15.

State Services Minister Chris Hipkins: "Frankly, in a transparent Government, why wouldn't we release the information." he said of minister's releasing their diaries. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Ardern's diary showed a flurry of meetings, phone calls and briefings after the attack, including phone calls with world leaders such as US President Donald Trump, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In the days after the attack Ardern's diary also showed Ardern spoke to the Crown Prince of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyanand and the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as well as UK Prime Minister Theresa May.

Towards the end of the month, she spoke with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, then next day to French President Emmanuel Macron.

Late last month, Ardern announced she would co-chair the "Christchurch Call" summit in Paris with Macron – it is possible they pair were talking about the event.

The Prime Minister's diary does not include text message exchanges.

However, her diaries are a lot more detailed than other ministers.

As well as listing her considerably long list of one-on-one interviews, Ardern also lists things like question time, when she talks to media before going into the House and before Labour's caucus meetings.

No other ministers include their media time before going into the House or their caucus meetings.

Most don't include time spent in the House either – but Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Hipkins' diaries show both spend two hours preparing for Question Time ahead of 2pm on sitting days, if they have a question that day.

And that's not the only inconsistency. Although every minister records when they meet with the rest of Cabinet on Monday – Foreign Minister Winston Peters is the only one who does not.

Looking at specific appointments can also give clues as to where the Government may be looking at as areas of priority.

Take Ardern's 11am meeting on March 4.

In her office, she met with National leader Simon Bridges and the party's climate change spokesman Todd Muller as well as Climate Change Minister James Shaw.

Shaw confirmed they were talking about the Zero Carbon bill.

Towards the end of February, Transport Minister Phil Twyford's diary showed he took a keen interest in aviation.

He met with Auckland Airport's chief executive Adrian Littlewood and its chair Patrick Strange on February 19 – Robertson was also present.

The next day, he met with the Airports Association chief executive Kevin Ward and Wellington Airport chairman Steve Sanderson.

Half an hour later, Twyford met with Air New Zealand chief executive Christopher Luxon.

Fully open and transparent?

Very little is blacked out of the diaries.

When something is withheld, for example, Foreign Minister Winston Peters' February 8 meeting with Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne, just the location of the meeting is redacted.

However, in other instances, who a minister is meeting with and where the meeting was located have been fully withheld.

But the system is not as transparent as some might have hoped.

Although the Government might have no problem with the public seeing ministers are meeting, the details of those meetings are still mostly a secret.

Official Information Act (OIA) requests asking for notes or minutes taken during the meetings revealed that usually, no records are kept.

A number of OIA requests seeking this information was denied as "no record was taken of [this] meeting".

This, however, was not a surprise to Hipkins.

"The vast bulk of the meetings that I have in this room, minutes aren't taken," he said.
He added that this was just the nature of "a heck of a lot of meetings" in ministers' offices.

There are no minutes recorded during those meetings, Hipkins said.

A lot of the meetings were based on paperwork received during the previous week which he wanted to discuss before he makes decisions.

He said a lot of the meetings were "administrative clearing houses".

It would be "logistically impossible" to have thorough minutes and notes – "it would be a huge resourcing constraint to formally minute every meeting that we had".