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Transparency needed over ministers private email use

Friday, 24 February 2012, 1:09 pm
Press Release: New Zealand Labour Party


Chris
HIPKINS
State Services Spokesperson

24 February 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT
Transparency needed over ministers private email use

John Key needs to clarify why official correspondence is bypassing ministers’ work email accounts and going to private email addresses, which lack both the security and accountability required for government business, says Labour’s State Services spokesperson Chris Hipkins.

“The Prime Minister has already revealed that he and many of his ministers use private email accounts to receive official business, citing ‘access’ as the primary issue.

“Ministerial Services puts a lot of public money into providing these people with secure email accounts and secure laptops, BlackBerries, iPhones and iPads to access those emails.

“New Zealanders aren’t thick. You can receive email overseas, and quite frankly talking about a lack of access is no excuse,” Chris Hipkins said.

“The fundamental concern is the basic breach of process. Ministers serve the New Zealand public. That means they must be open to scrutiny under the Official Information Act.

“There is an old truism; if you’ve got nothing to hide, you’ve got nothing to worry about.

“Yet John Key has hedged around answering Parliamentary questions about the volume of information sent through accounts like Gmail and Yahoo, and what steps he takes to ensure the correspondence is recorded as ‘out of public reach’.

“The only conclusion that can be drawn from that is that he and his ministers are using private email addresses to hide information.

“This furtive practice is yet another example of a government trying to pull the wool over New Zealanders’ eyes. John Key needs to fess up,” Chris Hipkins said.

ENDS

 
 
 
 
 
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