For those who are keen followers of public law, which is basically the intersection of policy, law and Parliament, you may be interested in an upcoming book from Mai Chen, called Public Law Toolbox. Some of the early review comments are:

This book is unique. There is nothing else like it. It adds a new dimension to understanding the New Zealand government and how New Zealanders are governed. It is not a book that concentrates upon theory or gives detailed analytical accounts of legal doctrine. What it does is to look inside the engine of the New Zealand system of government and tell people how it works, up close and in detail. It is the perspective of an engineer in the engine room. – Sir Geoffrey Palmer

Mai Chen’s Public Law toolbox is a gift to our nation of monumental proportion! It is a comprehensive, authoritative, culturally insightful and intensely interesting body of work which is highly accessible and relevant for any professional, business, student and the layperson operating in New Zealand today. – Jenny Shipley

Mai Chen is uniquely qualified to write this book.

What she has produced is an accessible, easy to read guide that assists in the navigation of the operation of government which for many of us in business is at best a maze and at worst a minefield.

The book provides formidable evidence of the depth of Mai’s knowledge and experience and the examples cited are relevant and topical. I believe it is not only a “must read” for businesspeople in New Zealand  but it is also a “must keep” in that it is unmatched as an ongoing  reference tool on the subject. – Joan Withers

You can pre-order it from Lexis Nexis.

Tags: Mai Chen, public law

An interesting summary of a (55 page) paper by Mai Chen on the Ombudsmen legislation.

It is almost 50 years since New Zealand introduced a constitutional watchdog to provide citizens with redress for grievances against government departments and public organisations, as well as to improve standards of administration in government.

The ombudsman’s role has evolved since that time alongside the expanding influence of government in more and more aspects of our lives, under the Ombudsmen Act, the Official Information Act, the Local Government Official Information and Meeting Act, the Crimes of Torture Act and the Protected Disclosures Act.

Ombudsmen matter because they can deal more effectively and more quickly than courts in some cases, with complaints about behaviour by departments and organisations that appear to be contrary to law, to be based on a mistake of fact, and to be unreasonable, unjust, oppressive, or improperly discriminatory.

They are a very important part of our protections, which we often take for granted.

Some recommendations:

Ensure greater independence through a single fixed term appointment for ombudsmen, change the ability of the prime minister to refer matters (which may be politically controversial) to ombudsmen by requiring a resolution of Parliament (rather than from the prime minister alone), and an ability to keep under review and to report to relevant ministers and to Parliament on any proposed legislation that has implications for coverage by the ombudsmen and official information acts.

I agree on the single fixed term for Ombudsmen, just like the Auditor-General has.

Not sure if there is a problem with the PM being able to refer things by themselves, but agree on the enhanced ability to review and report.

Create a presumption that ombudsmen have jurisdiction over all departments and organisations that exercise public power and use taxpayers’ money, unless bodies are specifically excluded.

Yes.

Provide more powers to the ombudsmen, including binding powers against unreasonable delay by prescribed tribunals.

Sounds good.

Impose greater fines for actions which obstruct the ombudsmen from carrying out their functions and constitutional role.

Would have been useful against the Immigration Service!

It would be good to see the Government look at some changes to strengthen the role of the Ombudsmen.

Tags: Mai Chen, Ombudsman

Mai Chen has an article in NZ Lawyer on MMP. Some interesting aspects:

The skills for which the Right Honourable Helen Clark was often lauded, in governing under MMP (with a minority Government and disparate ‘support’ parties), seem to have been easily acquired by her successor, the Honourable John Key, despite Key never having been in Government. The new Prime Minister is now operating comfortably with a minority government under the MMP system after only six months in office. So comfortably, in fact, that this may be undermining public sentiment for change. It ain’t broke, Kiwis may say, so why fix it?

I’ve observed this also. The mroe sucessful John Key is at managing a minority Government, the less likely people are to vote for a change away from MMP.

Mai Chen then looks at options for reforming MMP, rather than dumping it. She focuses on the criticism that ACT got five MPs on 3.65% party vote and NZ First got none on 4.07% and proposes:

(a) Reducing the threshold to three per cent or removing the threshold altogether, which would likely result in a greater proliferation of smaller parties; or

(b) Requiring all parties to meet the five per cent threshold before they can have any List seats over and above their constituency seats. In the 2008 election, this would have meant that ACT would only have one MP, and the only minor party to obtain any List seats would be the Greens who won 6.72 per cent of the party vote.

I’ve long supported the threshold being 4%, not 5%, as recommended by the Royal Commission. If the threshold was lowered to 4%, there would be a stronger case for removing the back door method of an electorate seat to get List MPs.

Tags: Mai Chen, MMP

An article in the Herald on public law and lobbying, mainly focused on Mai Chen.

That said, about a third of the firm’s work is litigation, and her current workload includes two particularly high-profile cases. She has been hired by former Auckland District Health Board member Tony Bierre to sue former Prime Minister Helen Clark for defamation over comments she made during the Labtests fiasco. Chen is also acting for National Party advisers Crosby/Textor, who are suing journalist Nicky Hager over comments he made to Radio New Zealand.

Both those law suits look fascinating.

Tags: Crosby/Textor, defamation, Helen Clark, Mai Chen, Nicky Hager, Tony Bierre

National has two Caucus parties a year – Christmas and mid year. I commented at last year’s Xmas party that it was a sign of the tide turning that several former 9th floor staffers were at the Nat’s Party.

Well I missed the late June mid-year  one (as I was overseas) but when I got back I heard proof positive that the tide has gone out for the Government. What was it? The fact that Mai Chen had turned up to the Nat’s party. Can there be any stronger sign of sniffing a change of Government?

One Nat staffer joked to me that they checked the mail the next day to see if Mai Chen had invoiced them for turning up!

Deborah Coddington writes in the HoS about how popular the party was:

It was standing room-only last week at the National Party’s caucus party. People love the winning side. High-class canapes, bubbly, scantily clad young women looking for socially acceptable partners, and not a karaoke machine within cooee (at least when I left to go to a drunken dinner with some Auckland legal reprobates).

I hear the dreaded karaoke machine did make an appearance later!

Deborah looks at all the money the Government is throwing away of trains and the like:

And if Sparc is planning to spend $5.5 million on a website, how much do other Government-funded bodies spend on their sites?

In fact, it’s hard to imagine how to spend this much on a website. I should know, I’ve just spent the past week using WordPress to set up a free one (check it out www.redbankjames.co.nz – I’ve even started a blog. After slagging bloggers for so long I’ve admitted defeat and joined them.)

Welcome to the blogosphere Deborah. And using blog technology to set up a web presence is a very smart idea. A blog is really just a form of content management system – and a CMS which is a lot cheaper and a lot mroe robust than many out there.

At least we’ve got Nicky Hager to amuse us. I’ve always misjudged Hager as someone who took himself too seriously but his latest “expose” is hilarious. If John Key had gone around the press gallery with releases headlined “National Uses Boris Johnson’s Spin Doctors” the hacks would have yawned and asked for real news, like what colour hair dye National’s backbench women use.

Breathless Hager, however, has found the sniff of a conspiracy. I look forward to more revelations, such as Boris’ sister being named Rachel – isn’t that a Biblical name? And wasn’t John Key’s mother a Holocaust survivor? Jewish conspiracy? I think we should be told.

Indeed.

Tags: Deborah Coddington, Mai Chen, National