Only for the experts! Government became more opaque in 2022. A response to our letter of concern about the absence of disclosure on the Parliamentary webpage.

It seems that it is OK to no longer transparently lodge information on the Parliamentary page, to make it simple & easy for public access & engage.

From the Clerk of the House of Representatives (February 7, 2025):

Thank you for your letter for 6 February. It was referred to me because the Office of the Clerk, rather than the Parliamentary Service, provides secretariat support to select committees and manages Parliament’s website.

I will address the concerns raised in your letter in the order they appeared. Before doing so I should point out that my office manages the public submission process in accordance with decisions made by the relevant select committee. Concerns about those decisions should be addressed to the committee.

There is no Bills Digest on the main public-facing parliamentary page.

Bills Digests have not been produced since 2022. There was no requirement in law or in the rules and practices of the House to produce them.

There are no reports on the Bill lodged on that page. There are no Regulatory Impact Assessments, nor a Regulatory Impact Statement posted there.

The bill contains links to the Regulatory Impact Statement and Departmental Disclosure Statement. Neither document is a parliamentary paper and they are not required by the rules and practices of the House. Rather, they are produced because executive government requires them. Those requirements are set out in the Cabinet Manual. The website of the legislature does not publish documents for the executive.

Permissions for public submissions to a complex ‘paradigm changing’ Bill when Parliament is in recess.

I presume this point relates to the date set by the Health Committee for submissions. The committee, rather than the chairperson, called for submissions. Your concerns about the deadline should be directed to the committee.

PSGR is aware that some of New Zealand’s largest industries have been denied an extension to the February 17 deadline by a previous Select Committee Chair.

Only the committee could grant extensions to its deadline. The chairperson does not possess that power.

The Chair’s refusal of an extension raises the issue of ‘procedural fairness’ in this matter, and that further raises the question of the legal advice from Parliamentary Services to the Chair of that Select Committee. However, our understanding is that the Chairperson’s decision can be independent of such legal advice.

This advice needs to be transparently documented in open parliamentary records, so that people can observe that procedural propriety, as a precondition for Parliamentary Services to approve of fair and reasonable access to seeking parliamentary powers.

My staff give advice to MPs and committees on a confidential basis. It is not generally disclosed.

We ask that Parliamentary Services investigate this matter, and lodge all relevant documents on the Parliamentary website. We additionally request that the parties to this email consider that an extension to the deadline for submissions to this Bill may be a reasonable action to take in the circumstances.

As set out above, the documents you wish to see are not parliamentary papers and are not published on parliament’s website. The Bills Digest no longer exists. Requests for extensions should be directed to the Health Committee. You can contact its secretariat at he@parliament.govt.nz. Any such requests will be placed before the committee for a decision.

I hope this clarifies matters.

Dr David Wilson

Manahautū o te Whare Māngai

Clerk of the House of Representatives