That is the question Taieri MP Ingrid Leary is asking after a meeting southern mayors had with Shane Jones at which they discussed how the new hospital in Dunedin was not recorded in Jones’ ministerial diary.
Jones is the Minister for Regional Development and a New Zealand First MP.
His spokesperson says he met with the mayors as an MP.
Dunedin Mayor Jules Radich, Waitaki District Mayor Gary Kircher and Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark met with Jones and Mark Patterson, who is the Associate Minister for Regional Development and an Otago-based list MP for New Zealand First, in Wellington on November 6.
The trio went to Wellington to lobby politicians for the new hospital in Dunedin to be built as originally planned.
The meeting does not appear in Jones’ or Patterson’s ministerial diaries.
Ministers are required to proactively disclose their diaries, meaning the public can see who they met with in their roles as ministers, and when.
The matter is of note as Jones has previously come under fire for not disclosing meetings in his ministerial diary.
Leary said transcripts from radio and select committee interviews after the meeting indicated the mayors viewed the meeting as being with Jones and Patterson in their ministerial capacity.
At least one of the three mayors told the ODT he believed they had been there to discuss the hospital with a high-ranking minister, and he had no indication from anyone at the meeting, before or after, that the situation was otherwise.
There are references to Jones and Patterson as ministers in Kircher’s mayoral diary before the meeting, a report to his council after the meeting and in an interview with the ODT today.
Referring to Jones’s ministerial position, he said today: "we can speak to Ministers outside Cabinet or MPs, and getting them on board is really important, but obviously having someone at the Cabinet table is much more important".
"We were trying to make sure we left no stone unturned."
Asked whether he thought the mayors would have met Jones and Patterson about the new Dunedin hospital in their capacity as MPs only, Kircher said that would have been "less likely".
"Again, it was trying to make sure we're meeting with someone worth more say in the whole coalition government.
"As I noted, Minister Patterson was there as well. And, you know, it was definitely helpful for both of them to be there, but the aim was really making sure that we did get to speak to people who were high up in government."
Radich told the ODT there was "no discussion about what [Mr Jones’] capacity was" with regards to the November 6 meeting.
"Look, I was interested to talk to the other political parties in the coalition, as well as Dr Shane Reti, who was Minister of Health.
"I had hoped to have a meeting with [deputy prime minister and NZ First leader] Winston Peters, but he was away."
Asked whether he believed it was a meeting with Jones in his capacity as an NZ First MP or as Minister for Regional Development, Mr Radich said: "I don't, to be honest, understand what difference it makes".
Clark told the ODT he was "unavailable for comment" on the matter.
Jones’ office told the ODT he met with the mayors as an MP.
A spokesperson for Jones said the mayors met with "New Zealand First members", referring to Jones and Patterson, which was why it was not in the ministerial diary.
Labour MP Leary described the clarification from Jones’ office as not "passing the sniff test".
"Mr Jones is not a local MP (in the south), he’s the Minister for Regional Development.
"It appears to me from the way the mayors referred to the meeting publicly — on radio and in select committee and at least one mayoral calendar — that they viewed the meeting as in ministerial capacity."
Patterson being at the meeting as a local MP was acceptable, she said.
The Cabinet manual states the key purpose of proactive release of summary information from ministers’ diaries is "to promote the accountability of ministers, while also increasing the availability of official information".
"This purpose must be balanced with protecting official information to the extent consistent with the public interest, the preservation of personal privacy, and other interests such as national security."
University of Otago faculty of law Prof Andrew Geddis said it was an interesting situation because Mr Jones had failed to disclose ministerial meetings in his diary previously.
Most recently, he failed to disclose a dinner on the West Coast in February, at which he encouraged a mining company to write to Minister for RMA Reform Chris Bishop to seek inclusion in the fast-track regime.
Mr Jones subsequently entered that meeting in an updated version of his ministerial diary saying it was a "cock-up, not a conspiracy".
"It’s not like he can claim he’d never been aware of the importance of keeping accurate diary entries before," Prof Geddis said.
"As the Cabinet Manual says, 'ministers are expected to act lawfully and behave in a way that upholds, and is seen to uphold, the highest ethical and behavioural standards'."
