Sunday Read: Wheels come off the charter school circus clown car
On 31 October an official notice in the New Zealand Gazette authorised by Associate Minister of Education Hon David Seymour announced that the Charter School Agency (CSA) had entered into a contract with the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa Charitable Trust (NZPAACT) to establish the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA) as a charter school from Term 1 2026, with the charitable trust as Sponsor.
The problem? There is no NZPAA Charitable Trust and never has been.
That’s right, the Charter School Agency circus clown car signed a multi-million dollar legal contract with a non-existent entity and the Associate Minister of Education and charter school circus ringmaster’s official notice signed it off. Cock up, conspiracy or prat fall?
Yet, how would we even know? Almost every aspect of the charter school application, review and approval process is shrouded in obsessive secrecy at the insistence of the associate minister. We are all of us publicly funding these blatant schooling privatisations but we aren’t allowed to know who the applicants are, the dollar value of the contract or even the numbers of students on a charter school roll just because the associate minister says so.
The only independent oversight to date has been provided by Audit New Zealand. On 24 July, Audit New Zealand sent the Charter School Agency its final report on the assurance review of the processes to establish charter schools for 2025 applications. It gave the 2025 application round for new charter schools a clean bill of health:
“Nothing has come to our attention to indicate that the process was not conducted in accordance with the Ministry’s policy, planning, and published documentation, applicable rules and good practice for public sector procurement, and probity principles.”
In theory, then, adhering closely to the audited processes should not have led to a contract being signed with a non-existent charitable trust. But it did happen in practice. This implies that either the Audit Office review was not sufficiently thorough, or that the CSA did not follow the Audit Office assured processes. The associate minister’s explanation? He just shrugged it off.
On 13 November, in response to questions from RNZ, Associate Minister Seymour stated that the “administrative error” was “a bit of a screw up”, and that the trust existed (this was later corrected by his Office), but that “there’s not actually a problem to be addressed here”. In other words, nothing to see here, folks, just move on.
These and other reported comments by Mr Seymour in the same article do not give us confidence that he has full knowledge or grasp of events in this matter. For example, the same RNZ article reported that the CSA was unable to clarify the legal status of the contract. Mr Seymour said he had confidence in the agency’s processes.
Such offhand, unserious responses to legitimate questions of probity (i.e. honesty and doing the right thing) are of significant concern to us because Mr Seymour is the Minister to whom both the CSA and Charter School Authorisation Board (CSAB) are accountable.
“The light of day is the best disinfectant’ Justice Louis Brandeis, 1913
American Supreme Court Justice Brandeis made his famous ‘sunlight’ comment several times during his legal career as a way of emphasising the need to prevent corruption and wrongdoing in government, and promoting the importance of transparent public scrutiny.
Surely, there is evidence enough now to say that Associate Minister Seymour’s charter schooling circus and its secretive processes need to be thoroughly disinfected.
What do we know so far about the approval of NZPAA and its Sponsor?
After much toing and froing, the CSA told AEC that an expression of interest from NZPAA Charitable Trust was received by the Charter School Agency on 24 March 2025
On April 03 2025, a Post article reported that Wellington Phoenix had applied to establish a charter school, called The Wellington Phoenix Football Academy Charter School.
According to the CSA, a full application from NZPAA Charitable Trust was submitted on 16 May 2025.
On 24 July, Audit New Zealand sent the CSA its final report on the assurance review of the processes to establish charter schools for 2025 applications.
On 20 October in a media statement, the Associate Minister of Education responsible for charter schools, Hon David Seymour, announced that the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA) would open as a charter school in Term 1 2026.
On 21 October, AEC wrote to the CSA requesting the name of the sponsor (i.e. individual(s), body corporate, limited company, charitable trust etc).
On 28 October the CSA replied, stating that the Sponsor was NZPAA Charitable Trust, and that “This information is public information that is available and can be searched on companies’ databases”.
We immediately searched the charities, charitable trusts and companies registers once more and wrote back to CSA pointing out that no such trust existed. We requested that CSA: (i) provide us with the names of the officers and the date of incorporation or number of the Trust (i.e. publicly available information); and (ii) the date of application to become a charter school from the sponsor, NZPAA Charitable Trust.
A NZ Gazette notice dated 27 October 2025, published 31 October under the name of Associate Minister of Education Hon David Seymour stated that the Charter School Agency had entered into a contract with the New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa Charitable Trust as the Sponsor for a new charter School, New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (2025-go6168).
On 5 November, we sent a reminder email to CSA stating they had exceeded their stated timeframe for reply.
On 5 November, we also wrote to Associate Minister of Education Seymour’s Office, noting that the NZ Gazette notice had been authorised by him on 27 October and published on 31 October, stating that CSA and NZPAACT had entered into a contract to establish the NZPAA as a charter school with the Trust as Sponsor.
We pointed out that no such entity as NZPAA Charitable Trust exists and asked him the following questions:
Given that one party does not exist, how could the two parties have entered into a contract as the NZ Gazette notice states?
How could the Charter School Authorisation Board have recommended approval of a non-existent entity as Sponsor?
How could the said entity have presented an application as a registered Charitable Trust with no registered charitable trust number?
How could the due diligence processes of the CSAB, the CSA, and Associate Minister Seymour’s Office have failed to notice that the applicant had not provided the most basic evidence to prove it was what it claimed to be (i.e. a registration number)?
We received an automated reply, but no formal acknowledgement or further correspondence from his Office since.
However, on 6 November, a new limited company, New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa Limited (NZPAA Ltd), was incorporated and registered on the Companies register. The sole director is David Dome, the general manager of Wellington Phoenix, Board member of NZPAA and reportedly the brains behind this charter school venture. (The director consent form was signed and dated 03 November). NZPAAL Ltd is 100% shareholder owned by the Wellington Sports Group Limited, also incorporated and registered on the same day. David Dome is sole director and 100% shareholder (The director consent form was signed and dated 04 November).
In other words, the non-existent not-for-profit charitable trust vehicle has been replaced, after the contract was signed, by a for-profit limited company, with a sole beneficiary.
On 7 November, we received a reply from CSA, apologising for the delay and stating: “Regarding your query, New Zealand Performance Academy Aotearoa (NZPAA) are currently in the process of changing their legal entity structure. Hence why you are unable to search for NZPAA on company databases. They should be available online in the near future.” CSA referred us to the school for any further questions.
On 7 November we acknowledged CSA’s reply and asked them to answer the specific questions we had asked in our email of 28 October. CSA replied stating that (i) “The Charter School Agency does not release information from the application process, including names of applicants”; and (ii) “An Expressions Of Interest was received 24/03/2025 and their application is dated 16/05/2025.”
Now very concerned about what we consider an absence of probity (honesty and doing the right thing) by government and its secrecy shrouded agencies, on 13 November we wrote to Associate Minister Seymour seeking responses to the following further questions:
What was the name of the sponsoring entity in the EoI submitted to the CSA dated 24 March?
Was it the same entity named on the full application submitted on 16 May?
Was it the same entity that was approved by the CSAB
On what date was the application approved by the CSAB?
Was it the same entity that signed the contract with CSA?
On what date was the contract signed?
Has the CSA notified the Audit Office (i.e. Audit New Zealand) of this issue of the non-existent NZPAA Charitable Trust?
In what respects have the actual CSA processes concerning this application differed from those assured by the Audit Office in its July 2025 final report to CSA?
Given its status as an official government record, why have you not yet withdrawn or corrected the NZ Gazette notice you authorised on 27 October?
We received an automated reply.
Given the associate minister’s apparent lack of urgency in this matter, AEC has also now decided to write to the Office of the Controller and Auditor General requesting an urgent review of the process of approval of NZPAA as a charter school.
The need for sunlight and disinfectant is urgent precisely because the school has now appointed a chief executive and a principal, and is actively recruiting staff and enrolling students.
The circus ringmaster says there isn’t a problem to be addressed here.
AEC says watch this space.
Seymour is so nonchalant and smug. I don't have your depth of understanding, but are some aspects of this business illegal? I just can't believe that Luxon and the media seem so disinterested.
Such lack of transparency. What else is happening behind the closed doors? Thanks for bringing this to our knowledge.