Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The Privileges Committee will consider whether a false statement by Education Minister Jan Tinetti and delay in correcting it amounts to contempt of Parliament, and a deliberate attempt to mislead the House.
The committee considers and reports on questions of privilege relating to Parliament and MPs. Privileges are powers and immunities which ensure Parliament is independent of the Crown and the courts.
The accusation revolves around Tinetti claiming in February she had no responsibility for the release of attendance data, but was told later that day by staff that was an error.
However, she did not correct the record until early this month, and Speaker Adrian Rurawhe this afternoon announced the matter was being referred to the privileges committee. Rurawhe said Tinetti had claimed not to know she needed to correct the record until he sent her a letter.
"It is an important principle that the House can trust the accuracy of ministerial replies to Parliamentary questions," Rurawhe said.
"While mistakes are sometimes made ... it is vitally important that as soon as this is discovered the minister returns to the House to correct their answer at their earliest opportunity.
"It is for the Privileges Committee to determine whether the delay in correcting an inaccurate statement in this instance amounts to contempt. I rule that a question of privilege does arrive from the time taken to correct a misleading statement to the House. The question therefore stands referred to the Privileges Committee."
Tinetti was forced to correct the official record after telling Parliament on 22 February - under questioning from her National Party counterpart Erica Stanford - that she categorically played no part in the delay of the release of school attendance data.
Stanford had asked Tinetti why the attendance data for term 3 of 2022 was not released until the previous day. Tinetti told her the Ministry of Education was responsible for the release, and doing so right before Christmas when schools had finished for the year would have been cynical.
Stanford challenged her on it, quoting a senior ministry analyst saying the data release depended on the minister's approval.
Tinetti told Parliament she could "categorically tell that member that the ministry of education is responsible for the data, I have no say over that".
After subsequent questions, Tinetti was asked to categorically state she played no part in the delay to the release of the data. She said she already had, and it was a decision for the ministry.
She was forced to correct the record early this month after being contacted by the Speaker.
"I subsequently became aware that my office did have input into the timing of the release of the data through email correspondence with officials at the Ministry of Education. This correspondence has been released under the Official Information Act," her statement said at the time.
However, Rurawhe on Tuesday said Tinetti had already known she was wrong.
"The minister has stated that she was informed by her staff after Question Time on 22nd of February of her staff's correspondence with the ministry on the release of data. She has also stated that she did not know that her answer needed to be corrected until she received a letter from me on the 1st of May, after which she corrected it."