Clare’s post earlier today highlighted the excellent job done by I/S over at No Right Turn in analysing the slow response from some Ministers to OIA requests. This is a topic I feel qualified to comment on having played a role in the management of OIA requests in the previous government.
Firstly it is important to acknowledge that Labour in government did not have a flawless track record in this regard, and neither did the National government of the 90s before that. I can remember when coming to work in the Beehive hearing the story of a National Minister who kept a pile of OIAs that were ready to be released beside his desk. If the person who made the request did not keep pestering the Minister’s office the OIAs simply did not go out. Clearly that is not good enough, but it serves to illustrate the point that while a Ministry or Department will often process the request within the timeframe, the blame for its failure to be released on time will often lie with the Minister and their office.
In our time in government the Ombudsmen did highlight a number of deficiencies in processing, and I can recall attending a couple of meetings about that. By the end of Labour’s term the Ombudsmen’s annual reports indicated an improvement in the processing of requests. But that does not mean that we should not be even better when we are back in government.
So, what to do from here? This was a major topic of discussion at the Open Labour event on Saturday. It seems to me that there are some short and medium term things to do
- In the short term the National Ministers who have been highlighted by I/S need to step up their game. These delays are simply not on, and there needs to be some leadership from John Key on this.
- Just as we are now seeing increased transparency around Ministerial and MP expenditure, there should be a regular release of information on processing times for OIAs. I am sure sunlight will be a good disinfectant in this case.
- Looking further ahead I do think we need to move to see more documents pro-actively released, including Cabinet and Committee papers and background documents. This will actually reduce costs and promote efficiency.
- There are other practical measures as well, such as tightening up on transfer requirements. The idea that a Minister or agency will wait til just before a 20 day period is up and then transfer a request is unacceptable.
I think the solution here is a combination of updating the law and better enforcement of current practice. The OIA still serves us well and gives access to information that other countries are still envious of. But it is not working as well as it could. I am sure a multi-partisan approach is possible, and desirable on this. Perhaps making use of the expertise of Nicola White and others to lead the work?
Posted in Open Labour, OIA and Public Services. |
The news that secondary teachers are set to strike within the next two weeks sets up an interesting situation. The Ministry of Education do the negotiating on behalf of the government with teachers. My sources tell me that industrial action is looming in the Ministry of Education itself, with pay talks stalled and the mood souring.
Will Anne Tolley soon have on her hands not only the teachers on strike, but her Ministry staff out as well? And will the negotiators for the Ministry of Education be able to come back to the table if there is movement from the teachers, or will they be on strike as well?
Posted in PPTA and Education. |
Yesterday I visited a group of cleaners at Massey University’s Wellington campus. (apologies for poor photo quality). Along with their colleagues on the campuses in Palmerston North and Albany they are employed by OCS Limited to do the cleaning. OCS took over the contract for cleaning a couple of months ago and are pushing through changes to their employment conditions that are just shocking.
OCS have decided to move the workers from largely full time jobs to new jobs that will guarantee them only 25 hours a week for the 31 weeks of peak university time, and no guarantee of hours for the remaining 21 weeks of the year. The way they are doing this is by making the workers redundant and offering them new contracts with the reduced hours.
This is unfair and unjust. It will equate to a 35% drop in wages. These people are not well paid. They get just above the minimum wage. Many of them travel from Porirua to Wellington to work. While OCS as the contractor has the responsibility for the contracts it is concerning that this is happening on a publicly funded university campus. I have written to Steve Maharey as Vice-Chancellor expressing my concern.
The Service and Food Workers Union are taking the redundancy proposal to court on Thursday, as OCS are offering no redundancy pay. Anyone interested in supporting the workers I understand that some of them hope to be at the High Court in Wellington tomorrow from 9am onwards.
Posted in SFWU, Fairness at Work, Massey University and Union. |
Great turnout on a sunny day in Wellington. Strong speeches from a range of people- but the two women who had been unfairly dismissed under the law were the most important for me. Good people, who were doing their best, and fired for no reason. Its just not fair.
Posted in Fairness at Work. |
I had just become Labour’s Tertiary Education Spokesperson when the Budget estimates for Vote Tertiary Education were before the select committee in June. This is the one occasion when committees get to question Ministers. I have a healthy respect for Steven Joyce’s political nous, but I was keen to find out what lay behind that in terms of policy. What I quickly discovered was that when it came to tertiary education his was the accountant’s view- he knew the cost of everything, and the value of nothing.
Our exchange in the select committee was marked by two things. The first was his clear response to the emerging pressure on tertiary enrolments. He said it was a temporary problem and proudly boasted of the limits to eligibility to student loans that would “dampen demand”. That phrase has stuck with me as being one of the most disturbing things I have heard from a government Minister. In a time of high unemployment for the foreseeable future and a desperate need to find new ways to grow the economy, the key strategy of the Tertiary Education Minister was to work on ways of keeping people out of tertiary education. It just seemed wrong.
The second thing I saw was Steven Joyce get angry. I had never seen that. He had spent a year and a half smiling his way through his introduction to being a Minister. But he got angry with me when I started pushing him on the need to lift the cap on enrolments. We have seen quite a bit of “shouty Steven” as opposed to “smiley Steven” lately in Parliament. He is handling a heavy workload, and with problems in terms of the flip flop on the drink-driving limit, the enrolment limits at universities and the roll out of broadband it is no wonder he is less cherry than he has been.
But in the end Mr Joyce’s mood is irrelevant to the fact that we have people in New Zealand who want to be in tertiary education, who will not be this year and more next year. We are not going to catch up with Australia or anyone else for that matter if we do not harness the potential of all New Zealanders. To me the answer here is for a more active role for the Minister to ensure that potential students are catered for. It might be that not every single person who wants to go to a University should automatically go there. It might be that some time in a Polytechnic or Wananga would be a better place, or that a PTE might provide a good bridging course. Whatever, it requires an active Minister to lead the process.
To satisfy yourself that your job is done as a Minister if the bill for student loans is cut a little is not good enough. Mr Joyce should can and should be playing an active role in connecting students to study and people to opportunities. It is vital to our whole country.
Posted in Students and Education. |
