Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Politicians need to lift their game

Declining trust in New Zealand politicians should be a warning to them to lift their game. Results from the New Zealand Election Study for the 2023 election show that the level of trust in politicians has once again declined.

Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Green Party grapples with persistent scandals

Parliament’s speaker had no option but to refer Green MP Julie Anne Genter to the Privileges Committee for her behaviour in the House last Wednesday evening.

The incident, in which she crossed the floor to wave a book and yell at National Minister Matt Doocey, reflects poorly on Genter and Parliament as a whole. Parliament’s speaker, Gerry Brownlee, received complaints from both the National and Act parties about her behaviour. MPs from across the political spectrum are right to be alarmed at her outburst.

Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Rules can’t restore personal integrity

While Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is to be applauded for strengthening the rules around conflict of interest for Ministers, questions need to be asked about why more rules are needed.

Jacqui Van Der Kaay: The privilege of power

Yesterday’s hour-long inquiry by Parliament’s Privileges Committee into whether Education Minister Jan Tinetti misled the House or not must have felt a lot longer than that for her.

Tinetti was called before the committee by Parliament’s speaker for telling the House that she didn’t have a role in releasing the Ministry of Education’s school truancy data, when she actually did.

Jacqui Van Der Kaay: Why Parliament’s rules matter

It could be easy to shrug away Education Minister Jan Tinetti’s referral to the Privileges Committee as just another example of a Minister not following the rules of Parliament. But its significance should be recognised in the fact it is only the second time since 2008 that a Member of Parliament has been referred to the committee.

The cause of the referral is the Minister’s actions but at the heart of it is upholding the integrity of New Zealand’s Parliament.