Labour education and state services spokesperson Trevor Mallard says the Government should come clean on the payout to former NZQA boss Douglas Blackmur.

"The public has made it quite clear that they find large unnecessary golden handshakes to departing public servants unacceptable," Trevor Mallard said.

"Dr Blackmur is estimated to have received a six figure golden handshake even though he resigned to go to another job in Australia.

"It is a disgrace.

"I have written to the new chairman of the NZQA board asking for the amount paid to Dr Blackmur to be released under the Official Information Act. However, the Government has a responsibility to release this information publicly itself.

"Following the controversy surrounding the payment to departing Tourism Board and Fire Service Commission officials, the Government should have acted to ensure that the public sector had sound guidelines to follow in dealing with issues like this.

"Taxpayers have made it quite clear that they don't want to foot the bill for golden handshakes," Trevor Mallard said.

© Scoop Media

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>>