Kelsey’s bid to put rocket under Groser fails

Harsh TPP opponent Professor Jane Kelsey has failed in a High Court bid to make Trade Minister Tim Groser move faster in releasing the agreement’s negotiating documents.

In her own press release, Ms Kelsey says the High Court at Auckland is unable to make Mr Groser provide the information faster “for now.”

Ms Kelsey, who is first applicant in the case, went back to the court to challenge Mr Groser’s “stalling tactics” over the release of the information, following an order that he reconsider the Official Information Act request she made last January.

“The minister took a month to respond to the court’s decision, despite the urgency of the request and the imminence of the signing of the TPPA," she says.

“He then set out a process for reviewing the request, rather than an actual response. The ministry had so far located just one category of information: New Zealand’s negotiating mandates dating back to the start of the negotiations.

“However, the officials were too busy and the minister was overseas, so no response could be provided until February 5 [2016], conveniently the day after the expected signing of the agreement.”

Ms Kelsey asked the court to order the minister to provide the information by mid-December.

In a decision released yesterday, Justice Collins acknowledged the return to court reflected intense frustration at the delays.

However, he was unable “at this juncture” to make orders that could realistically speed up the process for release of the negotiating mandate documents.

The minister is expected to respond within the next week to an interim refinement of the other categories of information requested and Justice Collins says it is not appropriate to make any order until that was done. 

The judge cautioned the minister and his advisers that “there should be no further delays in responding fully and properly to Professor Kelsey’s request.”

Ms Kelsey says given Mr Groser’s behaviour to date, she expects “further stonewalling to avoid the release of any substantive information before the agreement is signed or while it is before the Parliament.”

The court also noted the Chief Ombudsman has still not concluded her review of two remaining aspects of the minister’s refusal to release the information in February that was referred to her as “urgent” in March.

Ms Kelsey says she retains the right to return to court again to seek further orders and directions in relation to the November judgment.

The University of Auckland law professor was recently named the 50th most powerful lawyer in New Zealand.

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