7. Local Government Minister—Correspondence with Whangarei District CouncilJAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of Local GovernmentLocal Government Minister—Correspondence with Whangarei District Council7. JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) to the Minister of Local Government: Does she stand by all of her answers to oral and written questions?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Local Government): Yes I do within the context that they were given. Jami-Lee Ross: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. You've ruled previously that supplementaries must flow from previous answers. I'm in an unusual situation now where the Minister has just said she agrees with her answers to oral questions and her answers to written questions and they actually differ now because she's corrected a whole lot of written questions.SPEAKER: The member can try and ask a supplementary if he wants to.Jami-Lee Ross: OK. Does she stand by her oral answer on 1 February 2018 where she confirmed she had received no correspondence from the Whangarei District Council or does she stand by her written answer where she says she has received correspondence from the Whangarei District Council on 7 November 2017?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I seek a point of clarification. SPEAKER: No there's no such thing. Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: OK. Yes I stand by the answers that I gave but for further clarification I provided and included administrative adjustments to written answers which included congratulation letters invitations thankyou cards and Christmas cards.Jami-Lee Ross: Is she now confident that all her answers to written questions are accurate?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: As best I can yes.Jami-Lee Ross: Does she stand by her newly corrected answer to written question number 15161 where she said that she had received no correspondence from the Masterton District Council between 26 October 2017 and 28 November 2017?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: Can I repeat for administrative accuracy I included invitations Christmas cards and congratulations as a part of the answer that was amended.Jami-Lee Ross: I seek leave to table a letter from the Masterton District Council mayor from 3 November 2017 to the Hon Nanaia Mahuta.Hon Iain Lees-Galloway: Speaking to the point of order.SPEAKER: It was not a point of order.Hon Iain Lees-Galloway: Could we get some clarification on the leave? Can I ask if the letter was written by the mayor in her capacity as mayor?SPEAKER: No. The answer to that is no. If people are unhappy with it being tabled they can decline. The letter has been described as being a letter of a particular date from the mayor. If it's been inaccurately described then there are consequences for the person who sought leave. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There appears to be none.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.Jami-Lee Ross: How can we have confidence in any of her answers when she has twice stood in this House and said she stands by her written answers and then her office withdraws 67 answers for written question and then after correction she still can't provide accurate answers to this Parliament?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: We ensured that we were accurate. In terms of the extent of the administrative response to the requests we have included correspondence that otherwise might have been considered purely administrative so as to improve the answer to the member.Jami-Lee Ross: How does the Minister stand by her answer that it is purely an administrative error when in her answers to written questions she told me she had received no correspondence from any council for the first month that she was Minister of Local Government? Does she think that was plausible? Was it her error or an administrative error?Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: At the early stages of becoming a Minister the clarity around emails and the nature of whether they were considered correspondence or not is a matter which—Jami-Lee Ross: You've been a Minister before.Hon NANAIA MAHUTA: Either that member wants the answer or he doesn't. At the point at which we were seeking to assure the member that we were covering all the administration components of the request that was made we did decide to include invitations congratulations letters and merry Christmas" cards."