Trade Minister Tim Groser has his head in the clouds believing the TPPA will not affect New Zealanders ability to buy homes, says New Zealand First.
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The judicial review relates to an Official Information Act request lodged on 25 January 2015 seeking eight categories of documents, drawn from categories recommended by release by the European Ombudsman in parallel negotiations between the USA and EU.
The Chief Ombudsman, in her final report released on July 29, endorsed the minister’s decision not to release documents other than in two categories – a list of all documents tabled by New Zealand in the TPPA talks and a cost-benefit analysis of the agreement – for which she deferred her final decision.
Prof Kelsey said the judgement also raised serious questions about the failure of the Chief Ombudsman to hold the minister to account.
On Tuesday Justice David Collins delivered a judgement in which he said there was was “no lawful basis for the Minister to withhold, in the way he did, a few of the information requested by Professor Kelsey”.
“The [Official Information] Act plays a significant role in New Zealand’s constitutional and democratic arrangements”.
The Court made an order quashing the Minister’s decision and directing him to reconsider the request in light of his interpretation of the provisions of the Act.
Collins added: “It is therefore appropriate for the Minister to ensure officials assess each piece of information requested by Professor Kelsey that is in the possession of the Minister and [Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade] MFAT against the criteria in the Act for withholding information”. “And if they don’t, there will obviously have to be a change in behaviour going forward but the blanket principles that we couldn’t release the text because the other countries had agreed not to is actually quite a sound one”.
‘The Chief Ombudsman is meant to be a check on Executive power, not to legitimise its unlawful practices’.
Government ministers may have to change the way they consider Official Information Act requests after the Trade Minister was found to have acted unlawfully over a TPP request.
He thinks it’s “part of a pattern of disdain that the government’s got for the Official Information Act and the public’s rate to know”.
“John Key himself has already said that they (the Government) tend to ignore or decline requests (under the Official Information Act) that are inconvenient for them or that don’t suit their interests, and we’ve said before that that is against the (Official Information) Act and I think that that’s been proven in court today”.
Labour leader Andrew Little says the court seems to have set a standard for ministers to meet under the act which is “probably long overdue”.
“The Minister’s approach epitomises the contempt for democratic processes and accountability that has pervaded these negotiations”, said Professor Kelsey.
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Trade ministers from the 12 countries involved in the TPP reached an agreement on the world’s largest free trade pact last week.
