National and Feedback

The Dominion Post has got excited that shock horror National MPs use databases. They report on payments to an Australian company for use and support of the Feedback Database.

I know more than a wee bit about this as long ago I was part of the team that customised Feedback for NZ use, and installed it in MPs offices around the country, training staff up on it.

It has a full suite of tools for MPs allowing them to track all correspondence on behalf of constituents, all phone and e-mail inquiries, all submissions to govt departments on behalf of those needing assistance. This is exactly what you want MPs to be doing. It is an outstanding constituent assistance tool.

It also allows things such as recording of views on issues and policies, which has both parliamentary and political uses. One can use it to alert constituents to bills on issues they have an interest in for example which is an appropriate parliamentary activity. Obviously at election time that info may also be useful in a political sense. They key is how it is used, when it is used and by whom.

Now the Dominion Post reports that the National Leaders Office has paid $90,000 over the last few years towards Feedback, and the National Party itself $366,000. On these numbers the party itself has funded 80% of the database and the MPs budgets 20%. I would suggest that not only is that entirely appropriate, but I would be surprised if other parties have anywhere near 80% funded by the party not the MPs budgets. In fact on those numbers I would say the party is subsidising the MPs budgets but National is traditionally quite conservative about the parliamentary funding rules, so this is no surprise.