Question about the mayor’s meeting with Jones and Patterson

This is the question that Mrs of Taieri Ingrid Leary is asking after a meeting with southern mayors had with Shane Jones, in which they discussed how the new hospital in Dunedin was not recorded in the Jones Ministerial Diary.

Jones is the Minister of Regional Development and a first deputy of New Zealand.

His -void door says he met the mayors as deputy.

Dunedin mayor Jules Radich, the mayor of Waitaki district Gary Kircher, and the mayor of Wintergill, Nobby Clark, met with Jones and Mark Patterson, who is the associate minister of regional development and a List Otago MP for New Zealand in Wellington on November 6.

The trio went to Wellington to press politicians to the new hospital in Dunedin to be built as originally planned.

The meeting does not appear in the ministerial diaries of Jones or Patterson.

Ministers are required to proactively publicize their diaries, which means that the public can see who they met in their roles as ministers and when.

The subject is remarkable, as Jones had already been criticized for not disclosing meetings in his ministerial diary.

Leary said the transcripts of the radio and committee interviews selected after the meeting indicated that the mayors saw the meeting as with Jones and Patterson in their ministerial capacity.

At least one of the three mayors said to Odt He believed they were there to discuss the hospital with a high -ranking minister, and had no indication of anyone at the meeting, before or after, that the situation was otherwise.

There are references to Jones and Patterson as ministers in Kircher’s mayor before the meeting, a report to his board after the meeting and in an interview with Odt today.

Kircher said today that he was not sure what the hospital had to do with the regional development portfolio, but the trio was trying to go as “tall” as possible to try to get the project on the line.

Referring to Jones’s ministerial position, he said today, “We can talk to ministers outside the office or parliamentary, and put them on board is really important, but obviously having someone on the cabinet table is much more important.”

“We were trying to make sure we didn’t leave stone on stone.”

Asked if he thought the mayors would have found Jones and Patterson about the New Dunedin hospital, in his ability only parliamentarians, Kircher said that would be “less likely.”

“Again, I was trying to ensure that we are meeting someone who is worth saying throughout the government of the coalition.

“As I noticed, Minister Patterson was there too. And, you know, it was definitely useful for them to be there, but the goal was really making sure we talked to people who were in government.”

Radich said to Odt “There was no discussion about what [Mr Jones’] The capacity was “with regard to the November 6 meeting.

“Look, I was interested in talking to the other political parties of the coalition, as well as with Shane Reta, who was Minister of Health.

“I expected to have a meeting with [deputy prime minister and NZ First leader] Winston Peters, but he was out. “

Asked whether he believed he was a meeting with Jones in his first deputy ability in New Zealand or as regional development minister, Radich said, “No, to be sincere, to understand what difference it makes.”

Clark said to Odt He was “unavailable to comment” on the subject.

Jones’s office told Odt He met with the mayors as deputy.

A Jones’s – -party door said the mayors met with “the first members of New Zealand,” Jones and Patterson referred to, which is why he wasn’t in the ministerial diary.

Parliament members do not need to disclose their meeting diaries.

Labor deputy Leary described the clarification of Jones’s office as “passing the smelling test.”

“Jones is not a local deputy (in the south), he is the Minister of Regional Development.

“It seems from the way the mayors referred to the meeting publicly – on the radio and the selected committee and at least one mayor calendar – which they saw the meeting as in ministerial capacity.”

Patterson was at the meeting as a local deputy was acceptable, she said.

The Cabinet Manual declares the main objective of the proactive release of information on the ministers’ diaries is “to promote the responsibility of the ministers, as well as increasing the availability of official information.”

“This objective should be balanced with the protection of official information as it is consistent with the public interest, the preservation of personal privacy and other interests, such as national security.”

The Faculty of Law of the University of Otago, Andrew Geddis, said it was an interesting situation because Jones had not released ministerial meetings in his diary earlier.

More recently, he did not disclose a dinner on the West Coast in February, in which he encouraged a mining company to write to minister for the renovation of RMA Chris Bishop to seek inclusion in the accelerated regime.

Jones later entered that meeting in an updated version of his ministerial diary, saying it was a “back-up, not a conspiracy.”

“It is not as if he could say that he was never aware of the importance of keeping the precise entries of the diary before,” said Professor Geddis.

“As the Cabinet Manual says, ‘ministers must act legally and behave in a way that defends and is seen as defending the highest ethical and behavioral standards.”

matthew.ltlewood@odt.co.nz