being made. A similar analysis will be performed on operations support and community
engagement activity.
Culture
Analysis, design, and drafting of a paper to provide options around the Commission’s culture are
underway. Engagement survey results, at a rolled-up level, have been provided, and a fresh eyes
interview with the CEO has been completed. The human resource profile data is yet to be
obtained.
The programme team is working with People and Culture to review the Engagement survey
questions to provide actionable and measurable results that provide insight into improvements
made and required
Delegations
The new financial and people leader delegations policy came into effect on 1 July 2022. The focus
of the workstream is now on policy implementation and progressing a revision of the policy to
bring back to the Board in September. The electoral matters delegations have made good
progress. Supported by the Legal and Policy Manager a draft schedule has been completed ahead
of the indicated time.
Implementation support is being provided to the lead and the establishment of a Kanban board to
assist with progressing key tasks and actions required for full implementation. Planning for staff
training being assessed, especial y those that are new to having delegations and those new to the
Commission. Communications support has been facilitated and is available.
Property – National Office
A paper was provided to the CE on 21 July 22, who reviewed recommendations to progress with
identified short-term options (quick wins) and the engagement of specialist resource to assist with
the identification of longer-term options. The paper and presentation wil be presented to SMT
and DCEs in early August.
Baseline capability review
The programme has been commissioned to undertake a baseline review, a recommendation in the
Capability Uplift review provided to the Investment Committee on the 23 June 22. The
programme is participating in the GE and Business planning priority work underway, which
provides insight into where investment may be needed to al ow the Commission to focus on
internal capability balancing the need to deliver GE23. The review wil fol ow the operating model
refresh approach and framework to complete this work.
Implementation of the first tranche of capability uplift
The programme has established an implementation working group to ensure that staff increase, as
a result of the “capability uplift” reflects the recent functional changes, eg position descriptions
are updated to reflect the realignment of functions and that sufficient lap/desktops, docking
stations, headsets and property requirements are known early enough to al ow procurement of
any goods required and sufficient lead-in time for planning to accommodate the growth in staffing
numbers.
Page 2 of 3
Preparing for an election
The latest GE Programme report can be found
here
Preparing for the future
Chief Advisor Māori
Māori Strategic Plan ‘Ngā Maihi’ Draft completed for Board review/approval
Participating in the MEO working group
Participating in the Data Sovereignty working group
Advice and Guidance – Māori Data Sovereignty
Advice and Guidance - relationship building with Te Ati Awa
Recruitment Snr Advisor Māori positions
Advice and Guidance - ECE recruitment
Advice and Guidance – ECE closure and reopening
Advice and Guidance – Comms Access Fund
Advice and Guidance – MEO – LBE
Advice and Guidance – Whakatau new DCE
Assistance to ECE Iwi engagement
Assistance to VS Iwi engagement
Issues under management •
None to report
Risks •
Nothing new to raise
Other news •
The Senior Programme Coordinator for the GE2023 Programme has left for a three-month
holiday and is a contractor and needs to be replaced with a permanent role. The PD sizing
has come in low and the Programme Director has met with Korn Ferry who have agreed it
needs to be sized up, but this has not yet been completed. Advertising for this role will begin
on 8 August.
•
Two Senior Project Managers have been recruited and wil begin on 29 August.
•
The GE Programme Director is also working on recruitment documents for a PMO Manager
and Senior Project Coordinators.
Page 3 of 3
• Requests for advice on donations, fundraising, boundaries, etc, digital signatures, occupation
• Coordinating response for EC to Whaikaha Ministry of Disabled People re reporting to UN
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Other progress
• Dean continues to lead IRT
• Continuing to assist ECE with the correspondence review
• Assisting ECE with queries about data and enrolment checks for local body elections, and
enquiries re enrolment and fraud
• Assisting teams with procurement and agreements
Advisory opinions
No advisory opinion requests received in July.
Official Information Act requests
Requestor
Topic
Response Time
9(2)(a)
Request for pol book dated
19WD
prior to 1870
9(2)(a)
Request to know process for
7WD
removing themself from
electoral roll
9(2)(a)
- If an eligible prisoner enrols
6WD
to vote for the first time while
in prison, what location or
address is used to determine
the general electorate or local
government ward they belong
to?
- Are prisoners prompted by
Electoral Commission
communication to update
their electoral enrolment
details in the lead up to a local
or general election?
9(2)(a)
Cyber security
16WD
Request for police referral
18WD
information relating to social
media posts on election day
for the Tauranga By-Election
Parliamentary questions
Simeon Brown
What is the current attrition
Responded 1 July
rate/turnover rate for the
Core Crown
Agencies/Departments the
Page 2 of 4
Minister is responsible for, if
any, and how does the current
attrition rate compare to June
2021?
Melissa Lee
What was the average per
Responded 1 July
hour or day cost, if any, for
the provision of interpreting
services for organisations,
departments and crown
entities within the Minister's
portfolio in the last financial
year?
David Seymour
Have any agencies under the
Responded 1 July
minister's responsibility, if
any, commissioned Kawai
Catalyst Limited for any work;
if so, for what work and at
what cost, by date?
David Seymour
How much money, if any,
Responded 15 July
have any entities, agencies
and offices under the
Minister's responsibility spent
on artwork in the last five
years, by item and amount?
David Seymour
Which agencies, offices and
Responded 20 July
entities, if any, under the
Minister's responsibility have
vacated or will have to vacate
their premises due to
earthquake-prone buildings.
With fol ow up questions for
those who have vacated or
will have to vacate
Select Committee questions
MOJ
What are the Electoral Commission's plans to
"maintain service levels in a complex
environment with increased resilience", and
how do these differ to administering the 2020
General Election in a Covid-19 environment?
MOJ
How does the Electoral Commission measure
the impact of its public education activities to
not only increase enrolment of electors but
also to increase participation?
Party administration and compliance
Page 3 of 4
• List vacancy filled 25 July and preparations made for outstanding list vacancy for Trevor
Mallard.
• Donations exceeding $30,000 from various parties continue to be processed
• Board decision re Māori Party party returns at the 2020 General election finalised and matter
referred to Police.
• Tauranga By-election social media referrals made to Police
• Party registration application received from DemocracyNZ
• Multiple queries about potential new parties and party names including queries about
umbrel a and component parties.
Issues under management
Implications of decision in first SFO case and legislative change.
Risks
The legislative change and reform programme is busy with tight timeframes. Mitigation is regular
liaison with MOJ and panel secretariat and coordination with programme Manager re
implementation.
People management
TOIL or excess
3 people in the team have leave balances of more than 25 days. Leave
annual leave
plans are under discussion.
Staff engagement
Good progress has been made with action plan implementation during the
month. There are no outstanding or overdue tasks remaining.
Other news
Natalie is overseas until 4 August.
Recruitment is getting underway for a fixed-term role budgeted for.
Page 4 of 4
•
Supported the Community Engagement Change Implementation.
•
Continued work on People and Culture policies and Vaccination policy with IRT.
•
Support Delegations Framework Implementation
•
Updated the Reporting Wrongdoing and Protected Disclosures Policy to reflect changes in
legislation
•
Implementing the Remuneration and Performance Round
•
Update from Health and Safety project was promoted to SMT and is going to the Board in
August.
•
Started planning for Engagement Survey Pulse Check.
Building relationships and understanding
•
The procurement team is engaging with the Chief Advisor Māori to improve the
Commission’s procurement broader outcomes
•
Finalised and agreed terms of new contract for criminal history checks during events
•
Delivery of interventions and support for ECE staff, this includes guidance to managers and
“Navigating Uncertainty and Change Successfully” for ECE employees and transition support
for employees who are affected by redundancy.
•
Supported recruitment drive for the Local Body Elections
•
Tupu LMS – high-level relationship meeting with Learningworks to reconnect and update on
changes and sounding out appetite and ability for contract extension. LearningWorks has
recently formed a technological and business partnership with Global Digital Solutions (GDS).
Further meetings to be set up to build on relationship, share and gather information.
Other progress
•
3 Film Production Services contract extensions (National Park Studios, Teacup Productions
and Unreal Films) signed and with providers to countersign.
•
New Master Services Agreement, six Service Agreements and a Statement of Work along
with NZ Post approval memo prepared for Board and CEO approval
•
DHL International Couriers contract extension signed
•
Pre-market engagement completed for contact centre contract. Memo being prepared to
request approval out of contract extension to post GE23 before going back to market
•
Procurement plan templates updated and published on ECHO
•
Procurement policy under development
•
Contract management guidance under development
•
Tender for IT Hardware concluded and contract under negotiation
•
Exemption memos underway for Learning Works and Telnet to address pending contract
renewals
•
Monthly meetings with SMT members to discuss their May financial results completed
•
The Finance team completed year-end processes and are preparing the financial statements
of the year.
•
Audit New Zealand commence the interim audit remotely. Information requested by them
has been provided.
•
Māori Macrons/Diacritics Support – Working with ECE and Voting Services on new go-live
dates for this work. Likely to be post September.
•
Applicant Recruitment Tracking System (ARTS) – IT continues to support the ARTS project,
specifically the integration of SnapHire with EMS and MOJ criminal checks. A proof of
Page 2 of 4
concept for the integration with EMS has been completed and we are working with Voting
Services and People and Culture on timelines.
•
Local Body Election Project - IT continues to support the LBE project with data extracts for
local bodies being tested and provided in July.
•
The Catalyst workplan is being reviewed and reprioritised with help from the business.
•
Planning for external Totara training for core Learning & Development group across the
Commission.
Issues under management •
Lack of capacity in the Administration Team due to a combination of staff il ness (COVID),
planned annual leave, and vacancies required National Office reception to be closed for
periods in July. Recruitment to fil vacancies continues.
•
Staff illness and a heavy workload remains an issue across all teams. The GE prioritisation
work wil assist with this. IT is looking into the heavy demand for meetings across the
organisation.
•
Recruiting quality IT staff remains difficult in current job market.
Risks •
Work exceeds internal capability and capacity to deliver - IF there are not enough internal
resources available from a capacity and capability perspective
THEN the technology assets
required for GE2023 wil not be delivered to sufficient quality in a timely and cost-effective
manner that meets the needs of the general election.
•
Large amount of change occurring -
IF the large amount of change that is occurring at the
Commission impacts Technology's ability to deliver key services to the organisation,
THEN
this may impact on the Commission’s ability and cost to deliver its objectives.
People management
TOIL or excess
•
One person in Finance, Property and Procurement has excess leave
annual leave
and a leave plan has been discussed and agreed.
•
Two IT staff in the unit have annual leave balances of 25 days or
more. Plans are in place to reduce.
•
TOIL balance for the whole IT team is 131 hours. Staff are aware that
this should (where possible) be taken before reward or annual leave.
•
No staff in the Administration Team have excess annual leave. Two
staff have very small TOIL balances as a result of by-election support
and this will be reduced when al vacancies in the team have been
filled.
•
Only one employee in the P&C team has more than 22 days of
annual leave entitlement. 10 Days of TOIL spread over 2 employees
were granted for the Tauranga By-Election – 5 days remain to be
taken.
Staff engagement
•
The first IT hackathon was held on 12 & 13 July. This activity was
driven from IT team members (not management) as way to improve
engagement. The approach was to take some real-life business
problems, apply some innovate technical thinking and come up with
some creative solutions that can be packaged as a proof of concept
Page 3 of 4
for presentation back to the business area. The activity was a great
success with 3 problems tackled and 3 potential solutions
generated. Next step is to demonstrate to interested parties.
•
The IT Team ideas channel continues to provide new areas of
innovation. Staff are also taking on training & development
opportunities.
•
The People and Culture Team mostly kept contact electronically
through P&C team meetings and TEAMS engagements
•
Staff in the old Corporate Services team (P&C, FPP and Admin) have
continued to meet fortnightly and recently introduced their pets
online at a TEAMS meeting.
Other news •
James 9(2)(a) has returned from leave.
•
Brooke 9(2)(a) started as Administration Support Officer in the Administration Team
•
Angele 9(2)(a) fixed term agreement as Team Leader, Administration has been extended to
the end of February 2023.
•
People and Culture are currently recruiting the following roles:
o Principal Advisor, Capability and Organisational Management
o Advisor, Learning and Development – currently shortlisting candidates
o Advisor, People and Capability – advertising closes on 22 August 2022
o Coordinator, People and Capability – advertising closes on 15 August 2022
•
People and Culture appointed a new Advisor People and Capability – starting on 15 August
2022
Page 4 of 4
• actively guard against the causes of mistrust leading to consequences for the Commission and
the election event
• be prepared to respond to the consequences of mistrust for the Commission and the election
event should they occur.
We have worked with the Communications and Education team to develop an agenda for a
workshop on 5 August which Kate Hannah wil attend, to help to set out the main areas where
communications and education can support the Commission to build trust and guard against
mistrust.
Preparing for the future
Election Access Fund
The project continues to make good progress despite working to tight timeframes. We are aiming
to have the fund ready to receive applications in September 2022.
Kath Lys, the project manager, has set up a project team and steering group (including external
experts) to oversee the project and provide quality assurance. The first steering group meeting
was held on 7 July.
The project team has undertaken extensive planning work in consultation with disability sector
leaders from the Disabled People’s Organisations (DPO) Coalition, the Office of Disability Issues
and Ministry for Social Development.
We are also meeting with political parties to tel them about the fund and to get an understanding
of what seeking selection as a candidate and campaigning looks like in practice.
Consultation with the public is now open (running from 18 July until 14 August).
Apart from consultation the project is focused on development of the processes and tools that wil
be required to support the Fund going live (e.g. applications process and financial payments
approach/mechanisms).
Data Platform Project
The data platform project continues to make good progress.
Tableau, the front-end reporting tool, was successful y used for dashboards during the by-election,
with data being pulled across from EMS. The data transformation is currently a more manual
process than what wil occur during the final product.
The back-end data platform capability, in which the data wil be ‘refined’ in ways to support
broader use of data across the Commission, is under development. A closer version of the
approach that wil ultimately be used across the business in future (i.e. including the full back-end
platform capability) will be rolled out to a small number of E&CE field staff for testing during local
body elections.
We are working with IT and are engaging a provider to undertake a privacy impact assessment.
Full certification and accreditation wil be completed by the time the Minimum Viable Product
goes live in November.
Page 2 of 4
Building relationships and understanding
We worked closely with the wider sector to set in place risk and security support mechanisms
during the by-election. This work creates a useful platform for work that we need to commence
later in the year to provide support for the general election. There is general acknowledgement
across the sector that the nature of our risk environment for a major event has changed since the
2020 General Election.
Work continues on the
2021-22 Annual Report – a draft of which is to be provided to the Board in
early August.
Strategic work
Following Emily’s environmental scanning workshops with the SMT, we wil be running an
environmental scanning exercise with the Board in September. The timeframe horizon for this
scanning will be longer (5-10 years) than the timeframe considered by the SMT (i.e. out to the
2023 GE). We will be using information from the SMT environmental scanning exercise to support
this Board exercise.
International work
We are aware that there has been limited engagement with the SMT about the International team
and the work they undertake. As a starting point, Karyl Winter wil be running an “International
Team 101” with the SMT - this has been scheduled for August.
International Liaison:
We have continued to support the Tokelau Chief Electoral Officer in the review of the Tokelau
electoral laws and associated resources for electoral officials and voters. Work has progressed to
draft rules being available for review and we stil hope to travel when the border opens.
We are currently in talks with the Commonwealth Elections network to assist in a training week that
they wil be hosting in NZ in November with attendees from across the pacific. We wil assist with
presentations on the theme of the workshop, this is currently under discussion.
International Electoral Assistance Programmes (MFAT funded):
We continue progressing with MFAT:
•
Extension of the Fiji programme – CWP has been submitted and we are awaiting the EXTN or
signing
•
The new Pacific Regional programme in partnership with UNDP, we hope to sign this in
September.
Fiji
Deployments continue with advisors recently in country to support training of key roles in the field
and provide a gap analysis of election readiness.
Simulations on improving the count process were successfully run and enabled a positive outcome
for recommendations to be made and subsequently approved. Simulations is an area we have
focussed on in the Pacific recently.
Page 3 of 4
We recently held a workshop in Fiji with the legal team on Peer review and Plain English writing, this
was very well received, and the SOE has asked that we run this again with a wider range of FEO staff.
We are currently awaiting the issue of the writ for the 2022 General Election.
Papua New Guinea
Pol ing started on 2 July and finished on 20 July with many of the districts going straight into the
count. There were a lot of disruptions and media stories but this is not uncommon with elections of
this size in remote areas of developing countries. However in other areas polling and counting ran
smoothly.
Our advisor for the TEW system we support is on the ground for two weeks to assist during the busy
period as they prepare to pay pol ing and counting staff.
The new data base (THS) which was developed for temporary hires and supplies management has
been completed and is in the testing phase at present and QRG are being developed. We hope to
deliver later this year all going well.
Tonga
We await opening of the border to travel to Tonga for commencing talks with the EMB around our
support, they are still closed at this stage to visitors. Funding has been received to recommence the
programme.
Pacific Regional Programme
The MFAT lead on this project is now back in place and we have hope to progress this programme
soon. We are stil working toward an October starting date. Manager International had an
opportunity to catch up with the UNDP our partner agency on this whilst in Fiji recently.
Issues under management
•
There are significant gaps in resourcing in the SG&D group which need to be fil ed to
continue to deliver and to support building of the new capability and to meet expectations.
Risks
•
SG&D is unable to meet expectations of key stakeholders (including the Board) due to
resource and budget limitations.
People management
TOIL or excess annual
•
Nil
leave
Staff engagement
•
We have supported the transition to return to the office and
broader flexible working policies.
Other news
Nil
Page 4 of 4
•
The Local Body Election (LBE2022) project delivered 3.4 million enrolment update packs and
the public information campaign in July. Despite Covid and staff il ness, the processing
centre’s were on track and the LBE-focused Community Engagement teams were working
alongside councils, and amongst much other work some great new connections have been
established with young adult organisations. PM and Leads have started capturing lessons
learnt.
Election Access Fund
•
Consultation on the Election Access Fund opened on 18 July. The survey is available in
alternate formats and available at elections.nz. An email was sent to 450 stakeholders to let
them know consultation is now open. An organic post has been shared on our social media
pages to raise awareness of the consultation and key stakeholders asked to share
information about the survey with their own communities. Many did so on their social media
pages and published information in their newsletters. Consultation is open until 12 August.
Māori Electoral Option
•
The Māori Electoral Option (MEO) project team was set up to commence the planning phase.
This was pivoted from the working group as a response function since February. The high-
level approach and milestones for a continuous MEO were presented to the Programme
Board on 27 July. The outcome of the parliamentary process is now expected to be known in
mid-November.
•
Members from across the Group continue to participate in the Māori Electoral Option
Project Group. Early planning for a campaign to move to a continuous option from March
2023 is underway and budgets have been confirmed.
Always On
•
Online enrolment continues to be supported with
always on advertising to reach people
whose circumstances have changed and who either need to enrol or update their details. It
targets people who have moved house or recently become eligible to enrol to vote. Targeted
messages are delivered through social media, online ads and Search and drive people to
vote.nz to enrol or update their details online.
Voting Services
•
Focus continues to be on preparing for and delivering GE2023, which is covered in the
GE2023 programme reporting.
Preparing for the future
Enrolment & Community Engagement
•
MIKE readiness for regional footprint review implementation – requirements have been
confirmed and are on track to complete by 10 August.
•
0800 Telnet relationships – the EC relationship lead was transferred from Comms to ECE in
July, followed by an in-person meeting on 28 July to discuss key chal enges and upcoming
activities. As the current contract term with Telnet expires on 31 October 2022 and there are
no further rights of renewal available under the contract, a memo will be prepared to seek
approval from the CEO to extend the current contract as well as a two-step RFP approach for
the outsourced call centre services.
Page 2 of 6
•
Gaps in unpublished processing - requirements for accessing the unpublished records in
MIKE have been updated. Reconciliation to MIKE backlog wil be undertaken.
•
Data Integrity Measures - this aims to articulate critical measures for the assurance of data
integrity and clarify current activities contributing to these measures. A deep dive into each
of the dimensions is in good progress, with recommendations due in late August.
•
Roll Cleanse Reporting – in good progress of exploring options to combine reports and
identifying opportunities for TSR reporting.
•
Correspondence Review - Feedback has been received from Comms and Legal on most of
remaining correspondence batches. The review is due for completion in August.
Building relationships and understanding
Media
•
The rules for donations to political parties have been under scrutiny this month, with two
trials in the Auckland High Court and a new Electoral Amendment Bill introduced to
Parliament.
•
Two defendants were acquitted in the trial relating to donations to the New Zealand First
Foundation. Legal and political commentators said the verdict exposed a loophole in the law
that enabled people to avoid disclosing donations meant for party activities. The Justice
Minister has moved to close that loophole. The main stories on RNZ and the Herald are in
Appendix A.
•
A trial has also got underway in Auckland relating to donations to National and Labour that
were allegedly split into smaller amounts to avoid public disclosure. Stories from Newsroom
and Stuff who have been fol owing the trial closely are included in Appendix A.
•
Coverage of the debate on the introduction of the Election Amendment Bil , which would
lower the threshold for the disclosure of donations, is also included in this month’s story
selection.
•
We issued a media release on 19 July to mark the start of consultation on the Election Access
Fund. Stuff, NZME/the Whanganui Chronicle, and the Gisborne Herald talked to disability
advocates and their stories provide valuable information to the public about the barriers
faced by disabled candidates and the sorts of expenses the Fund could cover.
•
Coverage of the local body elections in national and regional media continues to increase as
more candidates put their hats in the ring for the October elections. We continue to see
consistent and accurate messaging around enrolment and the Electoral Commission’s role in
local elections.
•
Mona-Pauline Mangakāhia-Bajwa has given 3 te reo Māori interviews in the past week to iwi
radio stations, helping to raise awareness about the implications of being on the Māori rol in
areas where there are Māori wards.
•
Media training was delivered to our team of Pasifika language speakers in Auckland and
Dunedin who are providing interviews on enrol ing for the local elections to Tongan and
Samoan radio programmes on the Pacific Media Network and Access Radio.
A selection of stories is attached in Appendix A.
Social media
•
The Group has been moderating comments and responding to public enquiries generated by
social media advertising for the enrolment update campaign. We have had some questions
Page 3 of 6
about the rules for local elections and in these cases, have explained our role and referred
them to the relevant local council.
•
Comments are mostly positive, and many stakeholders have shared our posts with their own
communities. Some people have raised concerns and the themes of these include the
environmental impact of a large-scale mailout, receiving letters for residents who previously
lived at an address, and Tauranga residents commenting that there wil be no City Council
election in their area this year.
Enrolment & Community Engagement
•
Māori Macrons - The release of Naming macrons has been delayed from April and again from
September due to the postponement of ERSA system development. This has impacted on
the change management and training capacity for the new centralised processing teams. The
new timeframe will need to be discussed with IT and Voting Services.
•
Currently identifying the community engagement vacancies within the new structure and
reaching out to our community network to encourage suitable candidates to apply. We are
doing this alongside Hone Matthews, Peter Potaka and Mona Pauline Mangakāhia-Bajwa
who are doing the same with their networks.
•
The Memorandum of Understanding with English Language Partners is currently under
review, there is an appetite to continue working together.
Voting Services
•
While this is largely covered in the GE2023 programme work, the team is continuing to:
o Liaise with potential voting place partners (The Warehouse, Foodstuffs and Westfield
shopping malls). Meetings are scheduled for Monday 8 August
o Visit Māori communities to help shape opportunities to build on GE2020 outcomes to
improve voting services for Māori voters.
VS Field appointments, induction and recruitment
•
People and Culture provided induction training for the Regional Managers (RMs) and
Regional Advisors (RAs) on recruitment, workplace staff policies and health and safety.
•
Electorate Manager (EM) recruitment is scheduled to commence on Monday 8 August.
Recruitment plan developed by the Communications Team will be launched to access
multiple channels.
Other progress
•
‘In the News’ ─ a weekly round-up of media stories prepared during events ─ continues to be
provided to SMT and the Board on Fridays and be posted on ECHO for al staff.
•
Regional Footprint implementation - significant ECE efforts in working with the project team
to ensure al aspects of people, processes, systems, and logistics have been planned out, and
a smooth transition into the new regional structure.
•
Staff have ongoing involvement in organisation-wide initiatives:
o Membership on the Incident Response Team
o Membership on the Health & Safety Working Group
o Membership on the Laptop Working Group
o Membership on the Sustainability Working Group
o Membership on the Digital Governance Group.
Page 4 of 6
•
Staff continue to liaise closely with Census staff to identify areas of col aboration across
logistics (property, supplies, staffing), communications and community engagement. A
recent meeting was held with Census on 26 July. Key points to note are that they:
o Are continuing with their bulk printing requirements (28% complete)
o Continue to place more data stories, which are aimed at priority response groups (with
local themes, e.g. housing).
Issues under management
•
Capacity, recruitment, and a heavy work programme is still a challenge across the Group. All
business units are reviewing their work programmes in preparation for a planning day to
consider current priorities.
Risks
•
Covid planning for ECE is being strengthened due to the increase in cases nationwide and our
update campaign requirements.
People management
TOIL or excess
• Three Communications and Education team members have annual
annual leave
leave in excess of 25 days and have leave plans in place.
• ECE no toil balances.
• ECE have 2 staff members who are exiting the business on 19 August
2022 with excess of 25 days leave.
• VS has a small number of staff with limited TOIL hours resulting from
the by-election (support over voting weekends). Some has already
been taken and remainder will be used at earliest opportunity
• Three VS staff have slightly in excess of 25 days annual leave. One has
three weeks scheduled for late August. Remaining two are planning
leave later in the year.
• Communications and Education has limited progress on the team’s
Staff engagement
action plan in the last month because of our focus on delivering to its
work programme.
• ECE have had slower progress with action plans in the regions due to
LBE workloads and the impact of the regional footprint changes.
• Workshop for VS team on presentations and running meetings to be
rescheduled
• Team layout being reviewed as several new staff have been appointed
and wil be joining the VS team.
• ECE: GE2023 Senior Project Manager was onboard on 1 August but
Recruitment
later that day resigned to take on a permanent role in a large Ministry.
The recruitment will re-start.
• Advisor Learning and Development: Elyse 9(2)(a) has been appointed
to the role, starting on 15 August.
Page 5 of 6
26 Jul NewstalkZB Heather Du Plessis-Allan interviews one of the defendants from the NZFF trial
Full interview available to listen to here: NZ First donations: Defendant reacts to the not-guilty
verdict (newstalkzb.co.nz)
Heather Du Plessis-Allan:
There is concern that the New Zealand First Foundation case has exposed a loophole in the political
donation rules. Now on Friday, you will recall the High Court acquitted two men accused of fraud
over $750,000 given to the New Zealand First Foundation. And it essential y comes down to this. If
you gave money straight to the New Zealand First Party, they would need to declare who was
signing the cheques. If you gave money though to the foundation, they don't need to reveal the
identities of the donors.
Now, one of the defendants in this New Zealand First Foundation case has talked to us about this.
We're disguising his voice because he has a permanent name suppression. And we started by asking,
why don't you want to be named?
Interviewee: Well, I think people would have to be protected, and it's nothing to do with me
personally. And that is a serious responsibility which I have to undertake.
HDPA: Are you cross about this?
X: Well, totally Because we've done nothing wrong. What we did was lawful, always been lawful, and
now I hear people saying, oh there’s a loophole. The definition has been there since 2009 when the
National Party changed it. Everybody can read it, except apparently the Commissioner (from) the
Electoral Commission and the SFO.
HDPA: Okay so what you're saying is there's no loophole in the law, the law is written in a certain
way and you just used it appropriately.
X: Party donations are defined and we apply the definition and we have always said there was no
donation that was required to be reported. We actually provided all the files to the New Zealand
First auditor who gave evidence at the trial and said they would not disclose (them all). The only
question asked by the SFO of relevance to me was, Oh, did you go and talk to the donors? It's got
nothing to do with the donors. It’s got to do with where the money is deposited. And Justice Jagose
read the definition and applied it, and anybody who understands electoral law could have done the
same. I’ll take my hat off and say Justice Jagose is in fact a very competent, capable lawyer.
HDPA: Let’s just get this right, though. Right. You guys have deliberately, as arguably have the Nats,
you guys have deliberately used the law in such a way so you don't have to disclose who the donors
to the foundation are. Is that right?
X: No. What we did is we applied the law, and having set it up, we then looked to see if we were
required to disclose, and we were not required by law to disclose. (unclear. ) the wrong way round.
We set this up to do certain business purposes. And when you've got it set up, you then have to look
and say, Right, what is our obligation to disclose? We investigated that and we were not required to
disclose the way it was set up. We didn't go and say, gee how do we get around this and hide it.
What we did is we set it up. Then we said, what are our obligations?
HDPA: From the outside it looks like these foundations are set up in order to avoid having to say who
the donors are.
X: No. What you're talking about are foundations set up to do things other than run the political
party and elections. (unclear… classic example ) educating politicians so you have decent quality
people standing inside politics and some other sort of objectives these things can do.
…You're not trying to set up a party specific thing. What you're trying to do is build up a base where
you can have a party functioning properly, raising its money properly, disclosing its donations
properly. The donations that are relevant are the donations to the operation of the party and the
(unclear).
To the fund to support a political party which has got nothing to do with the politics is something
New Zealand we should be encouraging.
HDPA: But you can't argue that it's got nothing to do with the politics because of course it does. It is
a foundation that is supporting a political party.
X: They’re supporting a political philosophy and yes, it does work generally with one party.
HDPA: Exclusively with one.
X: It doesn't change the fact that the body politic in New Zealand needs institutions like this who are
(cogently?) addressing, for example, (having educated people as) members of Parliament going
forward. And if they think that these things have to al be disclosed, then fine, change the law. The
law as it’s (sat) since 2009 is that you have to disclose as a political party money that the political
party’s using for the body politic.
HDPA: Here's the problem here, right? The SFO has come after you guys. This has backfired on the
SFO now because now what's going to happen is every single political party out there now knows
because you've tested this in court, because the SFO has tested this in court, they now know they
only need to set up a foundation and they don't have to disclose their donors. Am I wrong?
X: You're wrong
HDPA: Why am I wrong?
X: The political parties al know because we’ve al read the definition, (unclear) so don’t think this is
something secret because it’s not, but you’re not actually taking donations to operate the party.
HDPA: Let's say you wanted to. Let's say another political party out there doesn't want to have to say
who their donors are. They can copy you now. They can set up a foundation, run it in a very similar
way, and they don't have to say who their donors are. Am I right?
X: They have to say who their donors are if they pass the money through (unclear).
HDPA: If the foundation uses the money, they do not have to say who their donors are. Am I right?
X: (Unclear) Why should they if they're doing something that is lawful and proper? (Unclear - and it’s
part of how we get politics to run and operate.)There’s nothing underhand in this.
HDPA: Well, the thing is it looks underhand.
X: Not at all.
HDPA: Have you seen the law that Kiri Allen as justice minister is planning? The changes she's
planning to make.
X: I've had a little bit of a look at it.
HDPA: They wil not change the situation, wil they?
X: Ah I don’t know (unclear) except to say this – if the experts who are going round saying this is a
loophole are the experts giving advice, they don't understand the law. So the answer is probably
(unclear). My thinking is that they actual y do not understand the law (and that they are) trying to
reform a law that isn’t broken and hasn’t been breached as far as I'm concerned.
HDPA: Is New Zealand First is going to run at the next election?
X: I don't know. I'm not a part of New Zealand First, I’m not a member.
All right. Now, Justice Jagose’s final judgement is that the two men had not received the payments
directly, but rather as trustees of the foundation and previous fundraising entities. Therefore, he
didn't see that their actions as satisfying the charge of, quote, retention, of control of the money. He
said there was quote nothing inherently dishonest about the fundraising organisations obtaining the
money and as they quote expressly sought to support the party, meaning the defendants could not
be found guilty of the deception part of the charge.
27 Jul RNZ Cabinet seeks urgent advice on donations law change
Govt seeks advice on changing party donation laws | RNZ News
Govt seeks advice on changing party donation laws
The government is seeking urgent advice on immediate changes to the
electoral law on donations to political parties.
It follows the New Zealand First Foundation case, which ended in an acquittal
that shows shadow entities can bankroll parties without having to identify
donors.
One legal expert has called on the government to fix the loophole before next
year's general election, but the prime minister doubted there would be
enough time.
Justice Minister Kiri Allan is now expediting official advice on the electoral
law to see if it can be tightened up in time for Election 2023.
"I'm definitely taking a very close look at this because transparency is key,"
Allan said.
"What we do know though is that whatever reforms we make in this area we
don't want to make a brash job of it. It needs to be done right so that's
essentially the guts of the advice that I'm seeking right now."
The government already has a bill before the House, the Electoral
Amendment Act 2022, to strengthen electoral law, like lowering the dollar
threshold at which donations have to be declared.
Critics have argued this is a prime vehicle to redefine what constitutes a 'party
donation' to ensure political parties can't be bankrolled by secret donors.
Last month, the High Court heard evidence money was flowing into the New
Zealand First Foundation at a time the New Zealand First Party was broke.
Some of the money was used to pay for campaign expenses for the 2017
Election, which saw Winston Peters emerge as kingmaker and pick Labour to
form a government.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern grimaced yesterday, when asked if she's
reflected on whether the opposition to a capital gains tax may have been
bought.
"It reinforces for me the importance of transparency in our system, which we
are working very hard to ensure we improve," she said.
"There's lots of things that I reflect on in politics and will continue to do so
but for me I've got to take the lessons and make sure that we do our bit to
improve the system."
ACT Party leader David Seymour said if Winston Peters didn't know about
$750,000 worth of money flowing into the foundation he owes everyone an
explanation.
"I can tell you, if someone wants to give $750,000 to the ACT Party I would
be aware of it. It beggars belief that Winston Peters wasn't and I think he
should front and explain what went on."
It wasn't clear from last month's trial exactly how much Peters knew about
the foundation's activities.
He was never called to answer questions but now says he was aware money
was flowing into the foundation.
"Of course, I was and at no point did I not say that. What I said though was
that what we have done has been strictly to abide by the law and there's no
loophole in the law."
Legal experts disagree with Peters' assessment and it's now up to officials
advising the Justice Minister to report back on any quick fixes on electoral
law.
It may be some weeks before the Serious Fraud Office decides if it will appeal
the decision in the New Zealand First Foundation case
28 Jul Spinoff Graeme Edgeler on how the donations law could be changed
How to close the donation loopholes exposed by the NZ First Foundation judgment | The Spinoff
How to close the donation loopholes exposed by the NZ First Foundation
judgment
By Graeme Edgeler Guest writer
Last week’s High Court acquittals of two people connected to the NZ First Foundation have
rendered the political donation disclosure regime near pointless, writes Graeme Edgeler. Wil a
new bil fix the many issues the judgment raises?
Last Friday in the Auckland High Court, Justice Jagose entered acquittals of two individuals charged
over the New Zealand First Foundation donations case.
Prosecuting cases is always hard – the requirement to prove al elements of the offence (and negate
all possible defences) beyond reasonable doubt sees to that. Thanks to some excellent work from
journalists such as Matt Shand of the Sunday Star-Times and investigators at the Serious Fraud
Office, we do know a lot about what the foundation was doing, some of it summarised in the public
judgment of the court.
The judgment records that the board of New Zealand First agreed to establish a “strategic
fundraising and management vehicle for New Zealand First”, to be known as the “New Zealand First
Foundation”.
NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell prepared a draft letter for the party to use in raising funds. The letter,
on NZ First party letterhead, which included “outlining Electoral Act disclosure obligations and
inviting payment to NZFF’s bank account”, was used in various fundraising activities, modified where
necessary. The letter “drew no distinction between the party and NZFF and expressly sought funds
to support the party”. It directed funds to either NZFF’s or the party’s bank account depending on
“whoever was asking and needing it the most”.
The judge records: “Payments into the account typical y were annotated by the payer ‘NZ First’ and
‘donation’, sometimes including messages of support for the party such as ‘Good luck Winston’. A
cheque expressly made out to the party was banked into NZFF’s account. The money was obtained
from fundraising efforts initially to support the party’s 2017 election campaign. Funds continued to
be raised under iterations of the letter after the 2017 election, totalling some $678,000 by February
2020.”
The foundation “paid some $140,000 in connection with the 2017 election, including rental and
other expenses of commercial premises in Wel ington’s Lambton Quay used as the party’s ‘campaign
headquarters’, and on expenses associated with the party’s 2017 annual general meeting and
convention, including production of a video of the party’s ‘bus tour’ of electorates. Some $280,000
was paid for NationBuilder and associated costs for the party’s website development. Nearly
$250,000 was paid in relation to consultants’ services to the party.”
Party MPs were sending the letters seeking funds for the foundation, with the judge accepting that
“all money was applied for the party’s benefit”.
Neither of the trustees gave evidence at the trial, but an explanation they gave to NZ First’s auditors
was used. This included denials of being involved in fundraisers, such as “No payments have been
received by the foundation for transmitting to the New Zealand First party”, “The New Zealand First
Foundation has NO agreement with the New Zealand First political party” and “The foundation was
never to transmit funds from donors to any political party, for example when it became apparent
that NZF … invoices had been paid by mistake at the same time as NZFF invoices the trustees
recovered the same as a debt from the party”.
Factually, the principle reason for the acquittals appears to turn on this explanation. To have to be
declared as a party donation, the judge said “the Electoral Act depends on it being ‘a donation … of
money … that is made to a party, or to any person or body of persons on behalf of the party who are
involved in the administration of the affairs of the party’.” The judge noted the evidence provided by
the prosecution “citing comprehensive evidence of its payers’ intentions” that their donations were
“made to a party”.
The judge said that under the Electoral Act, the definition of party donation does not “capture gifts
made without the party or on its behalf to people not involved in the administration of its affairs,
irrespective if the gift is intended to benefit the party. ‘Party donation’ is not defined by the party’s
benefit, but by the party’s receipt of the actual gift.”
The prosecution argued that the two men were in fact involved in the administration of the affairs of
the New Zealand First party, with one having a fundraising role for the party, and the other having
“multi-faceted involvement including as [Redacted] managing party positions and appointments to
them, and attending internal executive meetings”.
The judge said this didn’t matter. Even if the two men were involved in the administration of the
party, “the payments determinedly were not made to [them] in those capacities …” but were made
to the foundation. He concluded “the payments are to [them] only as trustees, in which capacity
they were not “involved in the administration of the affairs of the party”.
If this is the law – and a High Court judge has said it is – then it undermines the donation disclosure
regime to the point that it may be pointless unless fixed.
The reason we have donation disclosure is so that, when a party benefits from the money provided
to it by donors of large donations, we get to know too.
The finding that money paid to people who were involved in the administration of a political party –
that money being intended to be a donation to the party, that was actual y used for the benefit of
the party – does not have to be declared because those people were wearing different hats at the
time it was received completely undercuts this.
Last Thursday, the government introduced a bill to increase transparency around political donations
ahead of the next election. The headline change is a drop in the disclosure threshold for party
donations from $15,000 to $5,000. But that’s only for party donations, which means that any party
with a foundation like the New Zealand First Foundation – donations to which the High Court says
are not party donations – can simply avoid this change for donations it or its donors want to keep
from the public. And more importantly, the determination that these donations were not party
donations at al means that none of the other rules that apply to party donations (such as the ban on
overseas donations) would apply to them either (there was no suggestion that the donations made
to the New Zealand First Foundation were foreign donations, but rules around foreign donations
would not apply to similar foundations).
It might be too late to use this bill to fix every issue this decision raises (what should we do about
foundations generally; whether there should there be rules around how donations are made, eg that
they have to be electronic to a nominated bank account; whether there should be more obligations
on donors; and whether there should be greater obligations on parliamentary parties), but some half
measures are possible. And there are two relatively simple ones that would at least narrow the
loophole, if not eliminate it completely. First, amend the definition of party donation (and candidate
donation) so it includes donations intended for a party, and donations intended to benefit a party,
and to cover off donations received by anyone involved in the party in whatever capacity. Second,
amend the requirement that a donation must be transmitted to a party secretary to create an
offence of failing to do so.
Other loopholes will remain, with the biggest probably (hopefully?) the lack of disclosure obligations
in respect of parties that are yet to register, and donations made by New Zealand-based companies
that primarily operate as foreign-owned. These and other issues can hopeful y be considered by the
broader election law review, but parliament has the opportunity to fix the most glaring issues Justice
Jagose has pointed out in the coming months, and it should.
