OIAD-827
Anna Chin
[FYI request #24471 email]
Dear Anna Chin
Thank you for your email of 19 October 2023 to the Ministry for the Environment (the Ministry)
requesting the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1. What level of funding over the last 12 months is going towards activities and resources
that are based on people's identity. Rainbow tick procurement, paid staff time off
learning Te Reo, time spent singing karakia, cultural sensitivity classes, unconscious
bias training etc.
2. What level of funding is going towards jobs that are based on a person's ethnicity, e.g.
Maori directorate etc. Are there any special advisory or cultural groups or boards that
have been established by the Ministry of its own volition and how much do these cost
each year.
3. How much has or is being spent on co-governance type policies or arrangements.
4. How many additional staff have been hired by MfE since 2017 (net). How many FTEs
would need to go to get it back to the last government's level of staffing.
5. In the draft BIM and October baseline update, and fiscal sustainability request from the
Minister of finance what savings have been identified to date.
6. Politically impartial, can the current leadership and staff actually work with the incoming
government and it's policy work or is MfE's culture of hiring political activists mean that
current leadership is incapable of following new policy direction.
On 8 November 2023, the Ministry contacted you to clarify three elements in points 2 and 3 of
your request. On 13 November 2023, you replied to our request for clarification regarding two
out of the three elements, as outlined below.
Regarding the first half of point 2 of your request –
What level of funding is going towards jobs
that are based on a person's ethnicity, e.g. Maori directorate etc – you responded that you are
seeking funding for business groups within the Ministry that deal with matters related to
specific cultural relationships, ethnicities, or cultural groups, including initiatives like Māori
Crown Relations but excluding explicit legislative Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlements. You also
indicated your request excludes actual stated settlements and your focus is on initiatives
where the Ministry has interpreted scope or value independently.
Regarding the second half of point 2 of your request
– Are there any special advisory or
cultural groups or boards that have been established by the Ministry of its own volition and
how much do these cost each year – you were informed about publicly available information
on Ministry working groups provided in the
2023/34 Vote Environment - Supplementary
Estimates submission, available at:
budget.govt.nz/budget/2023/by/vote/envir.htm.
You did not provide us with further information about the types of groups you are interested in
and the subject matter they consider.
Regarding the third point of your request, you responded by specifying that you are interested
in
the
spending
on
co-governance
arrangements
“…where
the
other
party/group/board/advisory group is not democratically elected and the group/board/advisory
has limitations for membership based on ones heritage or what ethnic group the a member
professes to be.”
I have sectioned out your request and my responses below.
1. What level of funding over the last 12 months is going towards activities and
resources that are based on people's identity. Rainbow tick procurement, paid staff
time off learning Te Reo, time spent singing karakia, cultural sensitivity classes,
unconscious bias training etc.
Please refer to the attached table titled Cultural & Diversity Training Costs (12 Months) for a
breakdown of the costs associated with cultural and diversity training programmes and
resources over the past 12 months.
The Ministry also holds staff-led waiata sessions. No budget has been allocated for waiata
sessions, nor any costs incurred by the Ministry for the running these sessions or for any
resources associated with the Ministry’s kapa waiata.
2. What level of funding is going towards jobs that are based on a person's ethnicity,
e.g. Maori directorate etc. Are there any special advisory or cultural groups or boards
that have been established by the Ministry of its own volition and how much do these
cost each year.
As mentioned above, you clarified that you are seeking funding for business groups within the
Ministry that deal with matters related to specific cultural relationships, ethnicities, or cultural
groups, including initiatives like Māori Crown Relations but excluding explicit legislative Te
Tiriti o Waitangi settlements and your focus is on initiatives where the Ministry has interpreted
scope or value independently.
The Public Service Act 2020 (the Act) section 14 explicitly recognises the role of the Public
Service to support the Crown in its relationships with Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi/the
Treaty of Waitangi.
To this end, the new Act includes provisions that put explicit responsibilities on Public Service
leaders for developing and maintaining the capability of the Public Service to engage with
Māori and to understand Māori perspectives.
The new Act also carries over the current requirements on Public Service employers to
operate an employment policy that recognises the aims, aspirations and employment
requirements of Māori, and the need for greater involvement of Māori in the Public Service.
Chief executives are accountable to their Minister for upholding their responsibilities to support
the Crown's relationships with Māori.
In upholding these responsibilities, the Ministry’s Tūmatakōkiri business group provides advice
and support to help staff strengthen the Ministry’s reputation and improve our relationships
with our treaty partners, with a focus on strengthening in-house capability and capacity to
nurture Māori-Crown relations. This business group also undertakes work to meet legislative
Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlement commitments and support the Ministry in responding to
Waitangi Tribunal inquiries.
The Ministry has prepared a breakdown of the funding al ocated to Tūmatakōkiri over the past
12 months. This information is enclosed in the below table, which is being released to you in
full. While costs relating to work to meet legislative Te Tiriti o Waitangi settlement
commitments and support the Ministry in responding to Waitangi Tribunal inquiries is out of
scope of your request, the data is not easily disaggregated. The full costs have been supplied
in the interests of transparency.
Please note that your request for information on
special advisory or cultural groups or boards
that have been established by the Ministry under its own volition has been refused under
section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without
substantial collation or research.
Despite attempts to refine this part of your request, the Ministry is unable to provide information
in scope in a reasonable timeframe. The effort required to identify groups across the Ministry
that may be in scope of your request, assess information relating to their establishment and
purpose, aggregate annual costs consider material for release is substantial.
3. How much has or is being spent on co-governance type policies or arrangements.
The Ministry is refusing this point of your request under section 18(f) of the Act, as the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
Even with clarification of your request, the Ministry has been unable to identify information on
groups that may be in scope of your request, as well as assess relevant information for
release, in a reasonable timeframe.
You are welcome to make a new request with refined parameters, including a more specific
definition of co-governance, which may help the Ministry to identify information you are
interested in. For example:
• Regarding the definition of co-governance, are you interested in governance entities
where part of the membership is selected by groups other than the Minister?
• Are you interested in governance entities where half (or more) of the membership is
selected by external groups? Or entities with any number of external members?
• Are you only interested in groups where members are appointed by the Minister?
• Are you also interested in information on appointments by entities monitored by the
Ministry, such as the Environmental Protection Agency?
4. How many additional staff have been hired by MfE since 2017 (net).How many FTEs
would need to go to get it back to the last government's level of staffing.
This point of your request has been refused under section 18(d) of the Act as the information
you have requested is publicly available.
You may be interested to know that the Public Service Commission (PSC) offers Workforce
Data tables and visualizations that provide demographic summaries and workforce metrics
from
human
resources
records
as
at
26
October
2023,
available
at:
www.publicservice.govt.nz/research-and-data/guidance-data-drilldown-and-technical-
guidance/
5. In the draft BIM and October baseline update, and fiscal sustainability request from
the Minister of finance what savings have been identified to date.
I am refusing this point of your request under section 9(2)(f)(iv) of the Act in order to maintain
the constitutional conventions for the time being which protect the confidentiality of advice
tendered by Ministers of the Crown and officials. The information you have requested is still
under active consideration, and releasing this information would prejudice future decision-
making processes.
In terms of section 9(1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in the circumstances, the withholding of
this information is not outweighed by other considerations that render it desirable to make the
information available in the public interest.
6. Politically impartial, can the current leadership and staff actually work with the
incoming government and it's policy work or is MfE's culture of hiring political activists
mean that current leadership is incapable of following new policy direction.
Regarding this point of your request, you may be interested to know that Section 11 of the
Public Service Act 2020 states:
“The public service supports constitutional and democratic government, enables both
the current Government and successive governments to develop and implement their
policies, delivers high-quality and efficient public services, supports the Government
to pursue the long-term public interest, facilitates active citizenship, and acts in
accordance with the law.”
Furthermore, section 12(1)(a) of the Public Service Act 2020 enshrines the requirement that
‘public servants act in a political y neutral manner.’
There are two different sets of conduct and integrity standards which bind Ministry staff. One
is the Ministry’s internal standards which staff agree at the commencement of employment
with the Ministry and the other is He Aratohu, authored by the Public Service Commission,
which sets out the minimum expectations for integrity and conduct in the Public Service. You
can access He Aratohu here:
www.publicservice.govt.nz/guidance/guide-he-aratohu/ You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the Ombudsman of my
decision to withhold information relating to this request, in accordance with section 28(3) of
the
Act.
The
relevant
details
can
be
found
on
their
website
at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Please note that due to the public interest in our work the Ministry for the Environment
publishes responses to requests for official information on our
OIA responses page shortly
after the response has been sent. If you have any queries about this, please feel free to
contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address]. Yours sincerely
Jonathan Ryan
Director – Quality of Policy Advice and Ministerial Services
Cultural & Diversity Training Costs (12 Months)
Activity
Delivered by internal Total Cost over last 12 months
team or external
provider
Māori Language
Certified by Te Taura
The Ministry paid a total of
Allowance
Whiri i te Reo Maori
$13,614.37 in te reo Māori allowance
to 19 employees.
Rainbow Tick –
External provider –
The contract value is $11,000.
accreditation and
Rainbow Tick, Kāhui
educational materials
Tū Kaha
Mitigating Unconscious
Diversity Works
The contract value is $2,250 excl.
Bias workshop (28
GST.
September 2022)
Tōnui
Awariki Ltd.: design
The total cost to the Ministry is
and delivery
$268,960 excl. GST.
Education Perfect:
online modules
Staff events and
Facilitated internally
$1500: Speaker fee for the Women's
celebrations
by Ministry staff and
Network guest speaker.
acknowledging diversity
employee-led
$500: Table reservation for the
and cultural occasions
networks
Tagata Moana event.
$81.57: Funding for prizes at the
Pride event in September 2022.
Gender Tick assessment
Gender at Work
The total cost to the Ministry is
Community
$9000 excl. GST.
