Updated: 6:12am – The Prime Minister denies accusations she and the Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters are keeping details of the deal struck between Labour and New Zealand First “in the shadows”.
The National Party has demanded the release of what it says is a “secret” coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First.
The existence of the document – separate from an eight-page document that was released – was revealed by Mr Peters at a media conference last month.
National leader Bill English said the document went to “the very heart of the formation of the new government”.
“New Zealanders deserve to know what Labour has promised NZ First and how this agreement affects them.”
Mr Peters had told reporters the document would be made public, but Ms Ardern’s office has declined an official request for its release by Newsroom.
The office stated it did not hold “any such official information”.
Section 2 of the Official Information Act 1982 defines “official information” as that held by a Minister of the Crown in his or her official capacity.
Mr English said Ms Ardern was not living up to her promise of openness and accountability.
“It is unacceptable for the Prime Minister to claim it’s not public information. It is and the public deserves to know how the new Coalition, and therefore the country, will be run.”
He said the new government appeared to be “both disorganised and secretive”.
“It doesn’t seem to understand that part of running a country is being sufficiently organised to be up front and to justify and explain the decisions it is making.”
Ms Ardern said there were notes taken during the course of negotiations, but she did not view that as being a formal document.
Any “formal” document could be subject to the Official Information Act and would have to be released publicly.
The policy agreements Labour and New Zealand First formally signed up to were publicly released in the coalition deal, she said.
Ms Ardern said the notes included further areas where they might work together.
“Some issues will see the light of day and at that point we’ll make sure that people are absolutely clear that that was part of our discussions with New Zealand First, but others may not – there are constraints on us as a government.”
But some areas would not be addressed.
“That may be found to be unworkable, that may be found to be just fiscally irresponsible, that may never be progressed.”
And Mr Peters said the 38-pages had now been “abbreviated down” to 33-pages.
He gave a few examples of what was in the document: using the per capita measurement of GDP and wanting to change the way unemployment is currently measured.
Ms Ardern insisted it was not a “formal” nor a “government” document, in response to questions about why it would not be released.
“I have not had it in front of me since I was leader of the Labour Party in opposition, it has not been distributed to ministers, so under that classification I do not consider it to be a formal document for the purposes of the OIA.”
She described it as an “annotation” of the coalition discussions.
Mr Peters used a biblical analogy when asked why he originally said the document would be released: “Moses came down from the mountain and only had 10 commandments – but there’s a lot of it in the Old Testament as well”.
Ms Ardern said to Mr Peters she hoped he was not likening her to Moses.
The agreement covers how the two parties will manage their relationship and includes directives to ministers and more details around certain policies.
Mr Peters first revealed the document’s existence on 25 October at a press conference about ministerial appointments.
“It’s a document of precision on various areas of policy commitment and development,” he said.
“We put a lot of thought into it. On day one of the negotiations, that was the first subject we raised – how are we going to handle a successful, cohesive arrangement?”
Briefings to incoming ministers, which basically give a stocktake of each portfolio, will be released sometime next week.
-RNZ
Featured image: Photo: RNZ / AFP
