Privilege — Misleading Statement—Time Taken to Correct

Members, a matter of privilege has been raised with me alleging that the Hon Jan Tinetti deliberately misled the House by failing to correct a misleading statement at the earliest opportunity. In a supplementary question on 22 February 2023, the Minister was asked to categorically state that she played no part in the delay of release of school attendance information. The Minister replied that she already had, and that it was a decision for the Ministry of Education. The Minister corrected this answer on 2 May, stating, “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.”

The Minister has stated that she was informed by her staff after question time on 22 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 1 May, after which she corrected it. It is an important principle that the House can trust the accuracy of ministerial replies to parliamentary questions. While mistakes are sometimes made which can result in the House receiving an answer containing a misleading statement, it is vitally important that as soon as this is discovered, the Minister returns to the House to correct their answer at the earliest opportunity.

I have considered the matter raised and considered its degree of importance. 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 arise from the time taken to correct a misleading statement to the House. The question, therefore, stands referred to the Privileges Committee.