Adrian Rurawhe: Bill can help bring Govt to account

I AM looking forward to hearing submissions from the public and organisations to my Official Information (Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) Amendment Bill.

This Government's record on transparency has been, and continues to be, woeful. The voters in our electorates deserve to know what is being decided by those they have entrusted to manage this country's business. It is also important that you think about how this Government's decisions are impacting and will impact the younger generations who cannot yet vote.

I am urging the Whnau in Te Tai Hauuru and the Whanganui Electorate to make a submission to my bill. This is where you can exercise your democratic right to be heard and to hold this Government accountable.

That is why I put my bill into the members' ballot which was drawn on July 23. It had its first reading last week on October 14. My bill was supported by Labour, the Greens, NZ First, Maori Party and United Future and passed its first reading by 61 votes to 60. It has now been referred to the select committee.

The Official Information Act (OIA) is fundamental to an open and transparent government. It is one of the few mechanisms of democratic accountability in New Zealand that gives taxpayers and voters the confidence that decisions made on their behalf are right and proper.

My bill is a direct challenge to the anomaly in how parliamentary under-secretaries are treated with respect to the OIA. Parliamentary under-secretaries exercise delegated authority from ministers in specific policy areas, but they are not subject to the Official Information Act 1982.There is no reason for this to be the case. Under-secretaries are undertaking work as part of the executive branch of the Government and they must be accountable to the public in the same manner as the rest of the executive.

Just last week the High Court ruled Trade Minister Tim Groser acted unlawfully in responding to an OIA request. The Government is weighing up whether or not to appeal the decision. No doubt an appeal will come at a high cost, which is not only wasteful but a misuse of taxpayers' money.

This is more evidence of the creeping arrogance of this Government - that they are willing to throw taxpayers' money away to try and keep information from the public, despite a court ruling. Any government that is committed to openness and transparency would have jumped at the chance to fix this anomaly, but National and Act did not.

After the last election, Act Party leader David Seymour was appointed an under-secretary to the Minister of Education with responsibilities for charter schools.

He is also the under-secretary to the Minister for Regulatory Reform. Charter schools were excluded from the OIA when they were set up, an arrangement the Chief Ombudsman said may be unconstitutional.

It is therefore vitally important that those with oversight responsibility for these schools, such as Mr Seymour, are subject to proper democratic accountability. National and David Seymour may claim that they have already accounted for this with respect to Mr Seymour's delegated responsibilities; if so, why did they have such a problem supporting a bill that seeks to correct the anomaly in legislation? My bill will do that.

The taxpayers of New Zealand deserve to know that their money is being spent wisely and, in the case of charter schools, there have already been many concerns raised in this respect.

-Adrian Rurawhe is the MP for Te Tai Hauauru.