Adrian Orr and Nicola Willis. Photo: RNZ
The Finance Minister says not releasing texts that informed her of former Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr's potential resignation was appropriate.
Under questioning by Labour's Barbara Edmonds, Willis said she first became aware of the reasons for Adrian Orr's resignation on 27 August when reading the Ombudsman's ruling that outlined the specific concerns raised in a letter to him from the Reserve Bank.
"A letter I have not seen and had not seen previously - and which also detailed events preceding the receipt of that letter".
However, she confirmed she had also been aware since 27 February about Orr's potential resignation thanks to a text message from the head of the Treasury "informing me that the RBNZ board had agreed to start an employment process in respect of the governor of the Reserve Bank".
"In a separate text message, I was informed that the governor had elected to go on leave until the end of the process, and that he had been given until the close of business Monday to respond to a board statement of concern on his conduct."
Asked why the text messages were not released as part of the OIA response, Willis said she had "asked that very question today of my own team" but they - through Treasury - had upheld "high standards" over the release of official information.
She said the reason the texts were not released was "to protect information subject to an obligation of confidence likely to prejudice the supply of that sort in future" - that is, the texts related to an employment matter and releasing them would mean the Minister not being informed like that in future.
"These are matters relating to an employment process. If ministers choose to engage themselves and employment processes characterising them when they have not been a party to those processes, they risk politicising those processes in ways that can threaten the reputation of important institutions," Willis said.
However, because the Reserve Bank had since released information - after coming under pressure from the Ombudsman over withholding it - she said it was "now correct" to reveal the texts' contents in Parliament.
Willis said she would have to check whether her office was consulted about whether to release the information, which she said was a normal process.
She said she was confident her own handling of information requests relating to Orr's resignation met expectations of transparency and public accountability.
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