{"id":119271,"date":"2025-11-05T12:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119271\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T12:49:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T12:49:09","slug":"parliamentary-inquiry-clears-mp-carl-bates-of-wrongdoing-over-25-undeclared-homes-suggests-loophole-be-addressed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/119271\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliamentary inquiry clears MP Carl Bates of wrongdoing over 25 undeclared homes, suggests loophole be addressed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThese changes occurred both before and after my election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">Labour MP Glen Bennett then wrote to the Speaker of the House \u201cto raise a matter of privilege in respect of Carl Bates\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">Under Parliamentary rules, MPs must declare their business, property and other legal interests, \u201cthereby providing transparency and confidence in parliamentary processes and decision making\u201d. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">This is managed by the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests, Sir Maarten Wevers, who concluded a Parliamentary inquiry was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/parliament-launches-inquiry-into-national-mp-carl-bates-undeclared-25-properties\/7WKKCGJMB5FDPFXEUUAMK5BT3U\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/parliament-launches-inquiry-into-national-mp-carl-bates-undeclared-25-properties\/7WKKCGJMB5FDPFXEUUAMK5BT3U\/\">warranted<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">Today, Wevers released his findings, which found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/mp-put-25-properties-in-family-trust-before-facing-financial-declaration-rules\/5SNYJCC3LZB4LHPHLLLHBA7EZA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/mp-put-25-properties-in-family-trust-before-facing-financial-declaration-rules\/5SNYJCC3LZB4LHPHLLLHBA7EZA\/\">Bates\u2019 declaration<\/a> was \u201ccompliant\u201d with Parliament\u2019s standing orders.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">He also recommended Parliament should address the question of MP interests that are held in trusts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI have found that the member\u2019s return was compliant, questions have again been raised in relation to members\u2019 interests in trusts, and in the nature of assets held in trust for a member. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe matter of subsidiary interests of companies in which trusts have shareholdings has also come to the fore. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIn my view, these matters may warrant further attention by the House, in a future review of the Standing Orders.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"ZzQnbEvs\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/the-daily-h-your-fast-smart-guide-to-the-days-biggest-headlines\/VQR5CULLQRECZP2ORSWPGDORBU\/?utm_source=nzherald&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_id=nz_cta\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up to The Daily H<\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThese changes occurred both before and after my election.\u201d Labour MP Glen Bennett then wrote to the Speaker&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17311,16347,17315,5195,13657,84185,17312,17309,1644,3273,6800,37601,17319,296,84186,6368,111,43,139,69,1118,1523,76331,17317,75725,762,6122,30947,37602,1883,75860],"class_list":["post-119271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-17311","tag-addressed","tag-bates","tag-be","tag-carl","tag-clears","tag-declaration","tag-exposed","tag-financial","tag-future","tag-homes","tag-inquiry","tag-interests","tag-into","tag-loophole","tag-mp","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-over","tag-parliamentary","tag-parliaments","tag-recommended","tag-review","tag-rules","tag-suggests","tag-undeclared","tag-whanganui","tag-wrongdoing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}