8 Jun 2023

Jan Tinetti tells Privileges Committee she regrets delay in correcting statement

5:08 pm on 8 June 2023
Minister Jan Tinetti.

Education Minister Jan Tinetti appeared before the Privileges Committee, denying any deliberate attempt to mislead the House or not to correct a misleading statement. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver

Education Minister Jan Tinetti has told the Privileges Committee a delay in correcting a statement she made in Parliament is an error of judgement she deeply regrets.

The matter was originally referred to the powerful group MPs to determine if the delay amounted to contempt.

If it determines contempt has occurred, Parliament must then decide whether to take any action to punish the minister. Possible punishments include imprisonment, censure and expulsion from Parliament.

It all started back in February when, under questioning at Parliament, Tinetti claimed she was not responsible for the release of school attendance data, but was told later that day by staff that was an error.

She did not, however, correct the record until early May, after it was raised with her by the speaker of the house.

Today she appeared before the Privileges Committee, denying any deliberate attempt to mislead the House or not to correct a misleading statement.

"Upholding the integrity of Parliament is of utmost importance and something that I take very seriously... I made an incorrect judgement on this occasion about whether I needed to correct a statement or not. I regret that decision."

As context, she said the February question time was the first of the year, and her first as education minister.

"I didn't give enough consideration to the matter on that day," said Tinetti.

"I came straight from question time and straight into meetings. I made a judgement not to correct my statement and then got on with my role as minister."

She said when she came out of question time that day, her staff verbally told her about emails between her office and the Ministry of Education about the timing of the release, but Tinetti told the committee she had very little time to give that due attention.

"Probably five minutes maximum that I had in those discussions, I talked through with them about those emails, we had this discussion around the fact that it didn't alter the intent of what I meant, of what I said in the House.

"I then went into meetings. I didn't think about it again, at that point in time," she told MPs. However, she described the advice from her staff at that time as being "not definitive" and that she was the one who has to "take ultimate responsibility".

During the hearing she also insisted she had no idea her office was trying to time the release of school attendance data to coincide with an announcement from her on tackling truancy.

Tinetti told MPs she only became aware that had happened when she signed off on an Official Information Act release that contained an email from a staffer discussing their preferred timing.

"At that point it was the three week recess. I was going on a ministerial trip to Ottawa in Washington, and then didn't have any opportunity to talk about it with my staff.

"The day that I came down to Wellington, the letter from Mr Speaker was already with me."

National MP Gerry Brownlee questioned how she could be a "functioning minister" if she did not know about any of this.

Tinetti replied her focus as minister was on the data itself, and its quality, and not "the release dates or the mechanics of the House".

ACT said she should have been focused on "fixing the truancy crisis so evident in the data".

"The excuse Tinetti provided... that she was busy and couldn't be bothered checking the facts before responding to Parliament - is pathetic," MP Chris Baillie said.

"Parliamentary accountability is essential to a functioning democracy. Labour MPs seem to think the details are trivial. But they're extremely important for New Zealanders and they owe it to every taxpayer in New Zealand to do their taxpayer-funded salary justice and do their job."

Tinetti faced more questions from National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford after the hearing, back in the Chamber.

"On what date did the minister first possess any knowledge or awareness the Term Three attendance data could be released on the same day as the government's truancy announcement on the 21st of February?"

Tinetti told the House that "from my recollection, I didn't have that knowledge until the data was actually released - that was on the 23rd of February I believe - I haven't got that information in front of me but I'm willing to correct that, if I have got that wrong".

Get the RNZ app

for ad-free news and current affairs