"The Prime Minister is directly responsible for the current shambles over state sector bonuses," Opposition Leader Jenny Shipley said today.

"Helen Clark is currently attempting to distract attention from the issue by saying it will be investigated. The fact is she completely failed to take appropriate action when she had the opportunity to do so.

"I understand that a Cabinet Committee met in August last year to consider the question of state sector wages and bonuses. I challenge Helen Clark to release the papers produced as a result of that process - which will demonstrate whether her Government failed to give the state sector clear directions, or whether the state sector failed to implement Government policy.

"The fact that bonuses were awarded to staff at Housing New Zealand and NZQA after that date indicates something went seriously wrong.

"Either the Cabinet Committee did not complete its task and failed to address the issue of bonuses, an issue Helen Clark had previously ranted at length about the importance of.

"Or the Committee failed to relay proper rules about bonuses to chief executives, which would indicate a hopeless state of disarray in the Government's dealings with the state sector.

"Or the third possibility is that if the chief executives were given instructions they did not follow them. If that was the case then heads should roll.

"Rather than admitting her Government has dropped the ball, the Prime Minister is attempting to deflect blame to anyone within sight, including the National Party. That doesn't wash. The Labour Government had its chance to address the issue through the Cabinet Committee process in August last year, and has clearly failed to do so.

"Ms Clark's lame excuse to media today was that 'We had a very busy year last year and didn't get on top of everything'. She must now admit that the shambles over bonus payments is of her Government's making, and no-one elses," Jenny Shipley said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>