Confidence in the New Zealand Government's integrity will have taken a hit amid revelations of Stuart Nash's rule breaches, a leading Australian ethics academic says.
Director of the Institute of Ethics, Governance and Law at Griffith University, Professor Charles Sampford, told Q+A that situations like Nash's were not uncommon in developed democracies.
"It's a warning that things may not be as good as they seem to be," he said.
"There are big issues of money in politics – there’s too much. And truth in politics – there’s too little."
On Friday, the Chief Ombudsman announced he was reopening an investigation into an Official Information Act complaint lodged against Nash while he was a minister.
The complaint centres on how an OIA request for Nash's correspondence with political donors was handled.
Meanwhile, National is accusing the Government of having a "culture of cover-ups".
Sampford said it wasn't just a question of whether there was corruption, more so that of whether there was a culture of integrity.
He said while corruption is defined as the abuse of entrusted power for personal or political interests, integrity is about using that power for what it's been given for.
He recommended Aotearoa consider establishing an independent anti-corruption agency, but noted it wasn't enough on its own without a range of integrity measures that worked together.
When asked, Te Pāti Māori, the Greens, and The Opportunity Party told Q+A they support the creation of an anti-corruption commission in New Zealand, in principle.
ACT and National didn't see a place for a new anti-corruption commission.
Labour and New Zealand First did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
Sampford also said an ethics counsellor, which could give ministers advice, could help.
He said a separate Ethics Commissioner who could investigate potential breaches to the Cabinet Manual could also help prime ministers avoid potential conflicts of interest when making judgments of their own colleagues.
"It will build confidence in the ministerial code," the professor said.
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins stripped Nash of his ministerial portfolios after multiple breaches of the Cabinet Manual.
New Zealand is ranked second equal to Finland in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index. The index measures the public's perception of corruption in the public sector and judiciary.
Sampford said a "degree of complacency" can build in places like Aotearoa where there is little perception of corruption, and what had happened with Nash "can be very useful because they can challenge complacency".
He added that it was also important to remember the index was only about the public's perception rather than what may actually be happening.
Q+A with Jack Tame is public interest journalism funded by NZ on Air
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