PM shoots down Greens proposal to release records of meetings

Prime Minister John Key. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Prime Minister John Key has shot down a Green Party proposal which would require all ministers to publicly release records of their meetings with external organisations.

The ministerial disclosure regime proposal was introduced on Saturday and is based on a system used in the United Kingdom since 2010.

It would require all ministers to publicly release records of their meetings with external organisations, overseas travel, gifts given and received, and hospitality received.

Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said the records would be released on a quarterly basis and published online.

"A ministerial disclosure regime will bring a much-needed boost to the transparency and accountability of government in New Zealand," Mrs Turei said.

"The public will be able to see, on a regular basis, who ministers are meeting with, who they're receiving gifts and hospitality from, and details of their overseas travel."

Similar information was already available through the Register of Pecuniary Interests, but Mrs Turei said it didn't tell the whole story and occurred only once a year.

On 3 News' Firstline today, Mr Key said the proposal wouldn't solve issues surrounding Minister Judith Collins' dinner in Beijing last October with her friends and bosses of milk exporter Oravida and an unnamed Chinese border control official.

"Actually that information about Judith Collins and the number of times she saw Oravida in China might have taken a wee while to get there but it's in the public domain and it's not stopping Labour asking questions," Mr Key said.

"I don't think it does a hell of a lot, at the end of the day, ministers and MPs are accountable for what they do. There's already a whole series of different avenues you can explore from the Official Information Act, right through to the Pecuniary Interests list."

Mr Key said the proposal would become a challenge administratively and New Zealand already had an open and transparent government.