While everyone was watching the horrific flooding in Auckland and Northland, the New Zealand Herald quietly dropped a paywalled bomb.
The article exposes that Minister Nanaia Mahuta was being warned not to entrench parts of Three Waters as far back as November 2021.
So there was some planning. But then, Mahuta met with Green MP Eugenie Sage on 27 October 2022 to discuss the entrenchment, but didn’t detail this in her published diary.
Local government spokesman for National Simon Watts says as Mahuta was briefed by officials prior, the meeting should have been in the public diary.
“In my view, it is a serious breach of public trust and Mahuta needs to front up immediately to explain it as well as any other meeting she has had off the books on Three Waters,” Watts said. […]
NZH
Thomas Cranmer reminds us this isn’t the first time Mahuta has forgotten to diary note meetings.
Tipa Mahuta’s role specifically excludes advising the minister, yet Mahuta met with her at least twice in ministerial meetings last year.
Such disrespect of cabinet rules and colleagues should be met with strong discipline.
- How many other ‘secret’ meetings has Mahuta had?
- This is a test for Prime Minister Chris Hipkins’s integrity. Is he willing to make an example and show that this behaviour is not acceptable in the NZ government?
- What message does it send if Hipkins doesn’t move decisively on this?
The Herald article also says a May 2022 briefing paper suggests the Parliamentary Clerk mentioned his concerns about the entrenchment to then Leader of the House Chris Hipkins. But when the Herald contacted Hipkins’s office, it was told there was no evidence of that meeting.
The Herald article ends with: “Mahuta has been tipped to be reshuffled out of her local government portfolio next week,” but does not elaborate.
Discuss it on The BFD.