While Act may have desires for the ministry to be merged with others, its minister, National’s Mark Mitchell, says it is doing “outstanding work at supporting and promoting our ethnic communities” and has his “full support”.
Ministry for Ethnic Communities chief executive Mervin Singham at the ministry’s launch. Photo / File
The select committee’s remarks about the Ministry for Ethnic Communities’ performance reporting are found in its annual review of the ministry, issued publicly this month.
The report said the MPs “find it difficult to assess from the ministry’s performance reporting what results it is achieving for ethnic communities”.
The ministry achieved each of its seven performance standards in the past financial year. These included responding to information requests and grant applications within certain timeframes and receiving a high rating for the quality of advice it gave its minister.
The select committee said that while the ministry met these standards, it was noted that the measures “largely assess the ministry’s own internal administrative practices”.
“Now it has been operating for several years, we think there is an opportunity for its performance framework to more meaningfully capture its progress towards the outcomes it seeks to achieve for ethnic communities,” the committee’s report said.
“We heard that the ministry is working with the Office of the Auditor-General to establish measures that link more closely to its strategic priorities.”
The report said the ministry had informed MPs there were “obstacles” in “tracking its results, including its reliance on larger agencies and having no legislation or mandates to work within”.
“We also heard about difficulty in attributing successes. It said that an increase in volunteer participation by ethnic communities could be linked to social media campaigns run by the ministry, but that is hard to confirm.”
MPs encouraged the ministry to “continue to improve its performance measures, to establish more meaningful reporting before the next financial year begins”.
Act MP Todd Stephenson asked what the point of the ministry was if people couldn’t assess its outcomes. Photo / Alyse Wright
Todd Stephenson, Act’s public service spokesman, told the Herald that the ministry may “think it’s ticking every box for its own internal processes, but if it can’t show how its ‘busywork’ improves people’s lives, what’s the point?”.
“All it’s adding is cost and complexity. Ethnic communities deserve services that work, from hospitals and schooling to roads and immigration services. Those services already have ministries to administer them. The addition of an Ethnic Communities Ministry is expensive tokenism.”
The MP said it was “easy to set up a cuddly-sounding bureaucracy, but history suggests it takes real courage to actually remove one”.
A spokesperson for the Ministry for Ethnic Communities said the committee’s “feedback” highlighted the “need to modernise how agencies demonstrate impact”.
“Traditional performance measures, which are suited to agencies that directly deliver programmes or services, are not effective at capturing influence, prevention, partnership, or systemic change, which is the ministry’s core role.”
It said it was redesigning its performance measures, with work expected to be completed by the end of June.
“Indicators on the social and economic well-being of ethnic communities are shaped by multiple factors, including market conditions, social perceptions, community‑driven activity and global events that have local impacts.
“These influences are broad and cannot be directly attributed to the ministry’s impact. Attribution is difficult because complex, cross‑sectoral issues are shaped by many players and external conditions, making it impossible to isolate the impact of any single intervention in a meaningful way.
“The ministry nonetheless plays an important role in shaping system settings that enable better outcomes over time. We are in the process of designing a way to measure that.”
The spokesperson wouldn’t comment on suggestions it should be merged with another ministry, but said improving performance measures was a theme across select committee reporting this year.
Ethnic Communities Minister Mark Mitchell is supportive of the ministry. Photo / Marty Melville
Mitchell said his ministry had acknowledged the opportunity to improve.
“Using data to improve outcomes is in line with the Government’s broad approach to social investment, and it is my expectation that the ministry work with other agencies to do just that.”
The ministry was established in 2021 in response to a recommendation from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 terrorist attacks in Christchurch. It was built on the previous Office of Ethnic Communities.
The annual review report highlighted that in each of the past four financial years, the ministry had a net surplus, with its expenditure coming in very slightly below what had been budgeted.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.