Building relationships and understanding
Work has been undertaken with the CE to foster relationships with Iwi Chairs forum. Part of
the Reo Māori team was at Te Matatini, promoting MEO and GE2023.
Other progress
n/a
Issues under management
Māori translation work for MEO and GE2023: we have encountered barriers regarding quality
translation work that meets our expectations. Time delays and multiple handling of collateral
have put at risk our aspirations. PM have realigned our processes to enable adequate stages to
complete the work in a timely manner and alleviate the time pressure risk.
Other news
The programme management team now has a full complement of staff. The Manager, PMO
and three project co-ordinators have been hired.
The Senior Programme Coordinator is a contractor and wil remain to see out the GE.
Recruitment for a permanent position has not been successful and given the time between
now and the election, it was decided to extend this contract as the person has a wealth of
knowledge and is a crucial programme support position. Amongst other things, she is currently
training the new PMO staff members.
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Other Areas
Health and Safety - Progressed consultation and procurement of services for the delivery of field
Health and Safety Training.
Contract Management - Extending several existing contracts to ensure continuity of supply. Telnet,
Print Advisor and Print Panel.
Electorate Manager Training - Assisting with the preparation of the financial module for Electorate
Managers to ensure they have all the financial delegations and access to cash to perform and
understand their roles from a finance perspective.
Financials - Work continues to understand the financial cost pressures as the year progresses, and
how this will impact on the election year budget.
Preparing for the future
Across Enterprise Services we have 20 vacancies – 11 in IT, 2 in Property and Procurement, 3 in finance, 3 in
People and Culture and 1 in Enterprise Services. Currently we have 10 contractors in these roles. We are
using Snaphire to recruit these roles and we are actively recruiting 9 of these roles.
We have completed the procurement pipeline planning with the business and now have an updated
schedule of contracts for the Commission. This has been a huge effort by the team over the last 6 months.
Work has begun at looking at FMIS Phase 3 which was descoped from Phase 1. Finance and procurement
are currently working on this and will also bring IT into the discussion. There is continued improvements in
the FMIS (Business Central) to ensure better financial reporting to enable more informed decisions.
Building relationships and understanding
People & Culture, Administration and IT are working together to streamline onboarding and inductions to
provide a better employee experience.
A number of external relationship meetings have been held including with MBIE around AoG contracts, e.g.
Banking, and new furniture panel, external auditors and other government agencies of similar sizes.
We are planning a suite of training sessions for the Commission to enhance the procurement and contract
management capability of EC staff and financial literacy. This is in conjunction with the planned P&C
leadership training modules.
Other progress
Staff offering - Samsung Family Value Programme is being progressed. Continue engagement with
Samsung to finalise a potential special offering to employees as well as potential discounts for car
hire being made available to employees.
We published the Commission’s Pay Gap Action Plan on our external website (Kia Toipoto Pay Gap
Action Plan | Elections) and updated links to the Public Services Commission’s website on this page.
Issues under management
Retention of permanent staff is an issue in IT with two key members of the IT team departing
overseas
It is anticipated that the recruitment arena will continue to be very busy over the next few months,
and the risk of not being able to secure quality candidates for roles is still a risk in the current market.
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Other news
Our people movement over the last few months includes:
Emma Gillard has accepted the permanent role of Manager Finance and Administration.
Withheld under s.9(2)(a) has been a promoted from the Service Desk and has been appointed to the role of
Systems Analyst, a welcome addition to the team.
Withheld under s.9(2)(a) is leaving the team on 24 February.
Withheld under s.9(2)(a) has left, and we have 2 contactors backfilling the Business Partner roles while
we recruit permanently into these roles.
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Preparing for the future
Participating in the GE steering group, GE Programme Board, data stewardship group, and by-
election working group.
Preparing information for registered parties on the new responsibilities they will have under
the Electoral Act to file financial statements from 2024 onwards. Information to be sent to
each party during February with new information about financial statements to be
incorporated into the Register of Political Parties on elections.nz later this year.
Preparing a submission for the inquiry into the 2022 local body elections. Submissions close on
14 February 2023.
Continuing work with the Communications Team on the development of election candidate
hub animation resources for election on being a candidate, loans, donations, and advertising
and expense. Scripts were finalised ready for voice recording.
Providing comments to Ministry of Justice on the Constitution Amendment Bill re ministers
warrants in an adjournment situation. Final Cabinet decisions on the timing of amendments to
be confirmed.
Building relationships and understanding
Starting work with StatsNZ and LINZ on planning for the next boundary review in 2025. An
initial meeting took place in mid December, where we circulated a high level timetable. A
further cross agency meeting will take place in late February to discuss the high level timetable
further and budgets.
Continuing meeting weekly with Ministry of Justice Policy team on legislative change and other
electoral work. A team meeting with the Constitutional and Electoral team was planned for
early February.
Support to Independent Electoral Review Panel secretariat including working on a range of
information requests, with input from staff in the Operations group.
In December Dean presented at the Electoral Regulation Research Network Conference in
Canberra on the New Zealand experience of enfranchising non-citizens. This was an
opportunity to hear about, and share information about recent changes to electoral law and
network with our Australian counterparts.
Fed into preparations for the Justice select committee annual review of the Commission
scheduled for mid February.
Other progress
Dean continued to lead IRT during January. He wil be handing over this role during February.
Review of procurement templates being developed by the Enterprise Group.
Continuing to review collateral being developed for the continous Māori Electoral Option,
which comes into force on 31 March.
Advisory opinions
We received five advisory requests during November, and a further ten requests during
December. We have a new look advisory template for 2023. Eight requests were responded to in
January.
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received a pay increase since 28 April 2020 because of exceptional
circumstances, if any?
Simeon Brown
As at 1 November 2022, for each of the core Crown
04/11/2022
MP
Agencies/Departments the Minister is responsible for, if any, how
many staff, if any, have received payments that did not affect their
base salary between 28 April 2020 and present day, and how much
money, if any, do those payments add up to in total?
Simeon Brown
For each of the core Crown Agencies/Departments the Minister is 21/11/2022
MP
responsible for, if any, how many staff, if any, have received
payments to refund or pay for union membership fees in 2021/22,
and how does this compare with each of the previous five years, and
how much money, if any, do those payments add up to in total for
2021/2022 and each of the previous five years?
Issues under management
SFO has sought leave to appeal re: NZ First Foundation case.
Withheld under s.9(2)(f)(iv)
.
We are continuing to work with the IT team on the solution needed for parties to access the
nominations system via the Party Portal.
Other news
Resourcing
Braedyn Freebairn joined the team as a Legal Advisor on 5
December on a fixed term to mid 2024.
Withheld under s.9(2)(a) tendered her resignation during January, and left on 10
February.
Recruitment is underway for a permanent Legal Advisor role.
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The news that the election day had been set was quickly overtaken by Jacinda Ardern’s
announcement that she would stand down as Labour leader. Chris Hipkins was chosen as her
successor and is now Prime Minister. Since then, there have been two significant weather events
that have dominated news coverage.
The events of the year have meant that we have not featured in many media stories. Political
coverage has so far focussed on party selections in various electorates as candidates line up for
the election. We can expect more attention on our readiness to support the changes to the Māori
Option and conduct the election as Parliament resumes and there is more of a focus on the
electoral process.
Political commentators have looked at how the leadership change and the response to the
cyclones might affect party fortunes going into the election. This has included musings on whether
Labour could capitalise on a boost in the polls and call an early election, but this speculation has
been limited.
Māori Electoral Option
The Electoral (Māori Electoral Option) Legislation Act 2022 received Royal assent on 18 November.
The project approach and requirements have been revised to incorporate changes in the
legislation, which mean voters will be unable to change roll type in the 3 months before a general
election or the triennial local elections. Development work started with Catalyst in December and
is progressing wel .
Collateral required for packs to be sent to electors of Māori descent were developed with our
creative agencies FCB and Run. These included a new ROE42 form, outbound and inbound
envelopes and an information brochure about the Option. The information brochure required
input from our creative agencies, Straker International, Write Group, and internal teams. Final
designs provided to NZ Post and print suppliers for production.
A lock-up and overall creative direction for the campaign were developed and agreed, which has
enabled work on other elements of the campaign to begin.
Updates to the ROE1 enrolment form have been completed, and include changes related to
overseas elector eligibility for GE2023 as wel as MEO.
Advertising for 32 fixed term community engagement staff across the regional offices was carried
out in January. There is some risk in completing recruitment due to low response rates in some
areas, this is being addressed by regional managers. A GETS process was also run, seeking
community organisations to deliver the community engagement campaign in seven regions.
Responses were received for all but two, potential organisations in these regions (Nelson and
Dunedin) are being identified through our networks. A Project Lead – Partnerships and Contracts
has now been appointed and starts on 20 February. Planning for training delivery is progressing
well with trainers from the enrolment processing and community engagement teams.
The procurement of de-escalation training for community engagement and public enquiries staff is
now in progress with P&C. Scenario planning is also in good progress for MEO training starting
from 20 March.
Always on advertising activity
Always on activity was re-started after the holiday period. This activity targets transactional
enrolment messages to people who have recently moved house, turned 18, eligible to enrol on the
provisional roll and recently moved to New Zealand. Messages run across Google Search, digital
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placements and social media. New messages reaching young people are being trialled for the first
time on Tik Tok.
Websites
The communications team is supporting teams across the organisation to prepare online content
about our services, including overseas voting and assisting with a trial of the new upload voting
paper (UVP) system. The team is also supporting Legal and Policy on the development of the
candidate hub.
Preparing for the future
Diacritics functionality in MIKE is now completed after almost two years of development effort. In
addition to addresses, staff will be able to enter names with diacritics from the 16 February and
training has been delivered online to all staff in the regions.
Contract management responsibilities for the Print Advisors have now transitioned to the
Manager Business Enablement. Further development progress for the EOI and procurement plan
for the 0800 services.
Building relationships and understanding
Stakeholder engagement
Kea New Zealand
Communications met with Kea New Zealand, a global network reaching New Zealanders who live
and work overseas, to discuss how we can work together to share information about participating
in this year’s General Election and Māori Electoral Option.
TVNZ
Communications met with TVNZ to discuss support to deliver Vote Compass, which helps to
promote voter participation. The Electoral Commission has supported this initiative since 2014.
Head of News for One News expressed an interest in meeting with Karl Le Quesne to discuss Vote
Compass and this could provide an opportunity to discuss the Commission’s core messages for the
General Election.
Census
Communications and Enrolment continue to meet with senior leaders for the 2023 Census to
share information about preparations for the Census and General Election.
Communications to support integrity in elections
Work is continuing on communications activity focussed on integrity and building trust and
confidence in elections. This work is aligned with activity led by the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer
on integrity, security and trust and confidence in the election.
An Integrity Communications Plan has been drafted and progress has also been made on a suite of
resources to be used proactively and reactively to share accurate information on elections with
Page 3 of 5
the public. This includes a new video on how votes are counted filmed at the Tauranga by-
election. The video will be hosted on our website and cutdowns shared on our social channels.
Work is underway on a set of reactive FAQs on facts about the election to support social media
enquiries and comment; a content schedule for proactive communications on our social channels,
and guidelines for community management on social media.
Strategic communications
Development of stakeholder engagement plans commenced with the stakeholder relationship
leads for each stakeholder group. The purpose of the plans is to put some structure and processes
around our engagement with key stakeholders and ensure we are meeting with them frequently
and with purpose. A process for tracking of our engagement with stakeholders will also be
developed.
The implementation plan is moving into the visibility raising stage as public interest in the election
increases. Op-eds setting the scene for the year have been drafted for the Chief Electoral Officer
and Chair of the Board. Karl’s provides a more operational view and Marie’s take a broader a view
of the environment we are operating in. Trust in elections is a key pillar of both op-eds.
Election Access Fund communications
Stakeholder engagement remains a key channel for raising awareness of the Election Access Fund.
Prior to Christmas an email was sent to political parties and stakeholders with information about
the Fund. Handbooks in English and te reo Māori on the application guidelines were printed and
sent to all political parties and key stakeholders early in the new year. Messaging has also been
included in the Party Secretary Newsletter.
Creative development for the advertising campaign to raise awareness of the Fund progressed
with the scripts for radio and creative direction for print and digital ads. Candidate information in
alternate formats (NZSL, Easy Read, audio, Braille and large print) was produced and uploaded to
elections.nz
Social media
The communications team is working on a Best Practice Guidelines document, which details a how
we will run our social media channels in the lead up to the General Election. Work has also started
on a social media content calendar for 2023.
Moderation of social media comments and DMs is, and will continue to be, an ongoing job. The
communications team is currently trialing a new community management tool called Agorapulse.
This kind of tool is essential for ensuring the process of moderating comments and replying to
social media enquiries is efficient and timely when the volume of comments increase during the
public information campaign.
Other progress
Community Engagement team had two-day hui in December, bringing all regional staff together
first time after the regional review implementation.
Issues under management
Page 4 of 5
Competing demands on resources for the delivery of the Māori Electoral Option and
preparations for the General Election.
Other news
DCE visit scheduled to Lower Hutt Enrolment and CE hub on 27 February 2023.
With the announcement of the election day – there was an initial spike in enquiries the
majority about voting from overseas and interested in working for Elections.
Successful number of events attended for Waitangi Day celebrations and other summer
events – such as Waitangi Day, Waka Ama and Chinese New Year celebrations.
Focus now moving to other events including Polyfest, Te Matatini and the tertiary
orientation programme.
Interviews are underway for the Customer Services Manager.
Recruitment for Senior Advisor Learning and Development is planned.
Recruitment for a number of fixed term and permanent positions within the
Communications and Education team has been a key focus.
Page 5 of 5
Other progress
n/a
Issues under management
The team is carrying a large number of vacancies which we are seeking to fill currently.
One team member has been impacted by Cyclone Gabriel e, which is reducing capacity.
Other news
The SGD team will hold its first team workshop at the Wel ington Zoo on 17 February.
Recruitment is underway to replace EA Withheld under s.9(2)(a), who wil depart on 22 February.
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