{"id":342789,"date":"2026-03-22T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342789\/"},"modified":"2026-03-22T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T22:14:09","slug":"politicians-find-it-difficult-to-assess-what-ministry-for-ethnic-communities-achieving-encourage-better-performance-reporting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/342789\/","title":{"rendered":"Politicians find it \u2018difficult to assess\u2019 what Ministry for Ethnic Communities achieving, encourage better performance reporting"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Act may have desires for the ministry to be merged with others<\/a>, its minister, National\u2019s Mark Mitchell, says it is doing \u201coutstanding work at supporting and promoting our ethnic communities\u201d and has his \u201cfull support\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"MinistryMinistry for Ethnic Communities chief executive Mervin Singham at the ministry’s launch. Photo \/ File<\/p>\n

The select committee\u2019s remarks about the Ministry for Ethnic Communities\u2019 performance reporting are found in its annual review of the ministry, issued publicly this month.<\/p>\n

The report said the MPs \u201cfind it difficult to assess from the ministry\u2019s performance reporting what results it is achieving for ethnic communities\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The select committee said that while the ministry met these standards, it was noted that the measures \u201clargely assess the ministry\u2019s own internal administrative practices\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow 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,\u201d the committee\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard that the ministry is working with the Office of the Auditor-General to establish measures that link more closely to its strategic priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report said the ministry had informed MPs there were \u201cobstacles\u201d in \u201ctracking its results, including its reliance on larger agencies and having no legislation or mandates to work within\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

MPs encouraged the ministry to \u201ccontinue to improve its performance measures, to establish more meaningful reporting before the next financial year begins\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"ActAct MP Todd Stephenson asked what the point of the ministry was if people couldn’t assess its outcomes. Photo \/ Alyse Wright<\/p>\n

Todd Stephenson, Act\u2019s public service spokesman, told the Herald that the ministry may \u201cthink it\u2019s ticking every box for its own internal processes, but if it can\u2019t show how its \u2018busywork\u2019 improves people\u2019s lives, what\u2019s the point?\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll it\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MP said it was \u201ceasy to set up a cuddly-sounding bureaucracy, but history suggests it takes real courage to actually remove one\u201d.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Ministry for Ethnic Communities said the committee\u2019s \u201cfeedback\u201d highlighted the \u201cneed to modernise how agencies demonstrate impact\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTraditional 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\u2019s core role.\u201d<\/p>\n

It said it was redesigning its performance measures, with work expected to be completed by the end of June.<\/p>\n

\u201cIndicators on the social and economic well-being of ethnic communities are shaped by multiple factors, including market conditions, social perceptions, community\u2011driven activity and global events that have local impacts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese influences are broad and cannot be directly attributed to the ministry\u2019s impact. Attribution is difficult because complex, cross\u2011sectoral issues are shaped by many players and external conditions, making it impossible to isolate the impact of any single intervention in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spokesperson wouldn\u2019t comment on suggestions it should be merged with another ministry, but said improving performance measures was a theme across select committee reporting this year.<\/p>\n

\"EthnicEthnic Communities Minister Mark Mitchell is supportive of the ministry. Photo \/ Marty Melville<\/p>\n

Mitchell said his ministry had acknowledged the opportunity to improve.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing data to improve outcomes is in line with the Government\u2019s broad approach to social investment, and it is my expectation that the ministry work with other agencies to do just that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Act may have desires for the ministry to be merged with others, its minister, National\u2019s Mark Mitchell,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[182953,40923,37631,9442,40750,155850,36174,136537,25823,1866,2082,209,702,13620,49154,28874,111,43,139,69,6777,423,18481,5352,29483,7563,61,6923,14605],"class_list":["post-342789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-achieving","tag-ask","tag-assess","tag-better","tag-communities","tag-crossparty","tag-difficult","tag-encourage","tag-ethnic","tag-find","tag-for","tag-group","tag-it","tag-leading","tag-meant","tag-ministry","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-performance","tag-point","tag-politicians","tag-reporting","tag-serve","tag-those","tag-to","tag-what","tag-whats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342789","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=342789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}