Ministerial Accountability

According to The Press, Winston Peters will be refusing to answer questions about his relationship to the government, with a spokesperson saying that

the minister would not tolerate a repeat of the questioning he received at Apec

This is simply absurd. Ministers are formally accountable to Parliament, but they are also accountable in a wider sense to the New Zealand public - who do actually have an interest in weather their Foreign Minister is doing his job, or misrepresenting his own party's policies (on, say, defence and immigration, both of which he may be called upon to discuss) as those of the government. Or running his own foreign policy irrespective of what Cabinet wishes - which is what he seemed to be doing when he reportedly promised more troops for Afghanistan.

By refusing to answer questions about his contradicting the government, Winston is trying to evade that accountability. And that is something we should not tolerate.