Ministry stops sending workers to NZ First minister Mark Patterson’s office amid complaints, issues between staff

The MPI has stopped sending workers to the office of Mark Patterson. Photo / Mark Mitchell

• The Ministry for Primary Industries stopped sending staff to Mark Patterson’s office after complaints.
• The complaints are not directly about Patterson, but their nature remains undisclosed for privacy reasons.
• The Department of Internal Affairs confirmed multiple complaints, with no further details provided.

A ministry has stopped sending employees to work in New Zealand First minister Mark Patterson’s office after complaints from staff.

The complaints are said to not be directly about Patterson, the Rural Communities and Associate Agriculture Minister. No one involved is willing to explain the nature of the complaints for privacy reasons.

However, the situation has led the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) to not provide staff to the office. Ministries typically send specialist staff to ministers’ offices to assist with their policy work.

The Department of Internal Affairs’ Ministerial Services, which provides support to ministers, including employing staff, told the Herald it was “aware of complaints involving staff in Mark Patterson’s Office”.

“As this is an employment matter, we will not be providing further details. We can confirm the complaint is not related to the Minister,” a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson later clarified there had been multiple complaints made.

Kaye Ryan, MPI’s director people and capability, confirmed the ministry was “working with ministerial services regarding staffing of the office”.

“MPI does not currently have any staff in Minister Patterson’s office,” said Ryan, who also refused to comment further for privacy reasons.

The ministry confirmed the decision not to staff Patterson’s office was related to the complaints being raised.

Patterson told the Herald it was an “employment matter between staff” and wouldn’t comment further.

Earlier today, the Herald asked the Prime Minister’s Office a number of questions about the situation, including about when it became aware of the complaints and whether the Prime Minister was confident the culture the minister had instilled in the office was up to standard. It declined to comment.

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.