The Minister of Social Services and Employment, Steve Maharey, said he had received a report from Work and Income NZ (WINZ) about its use of consultants to help write its post election briefing paper. WINZ has advised Mr. Maharey that it paid the consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers approximately $9,000 for editorial assistance.

“The Government believes that writing briefing papers for Ministers is a core task and should not be contracted out. I now understand that while WINZ staff did in fact write the briefing paper, the department hired consultants to bring together the various parts of the paper which had been written separately.

“This is not acceptable to me as Minister and I have told WINZ that I do not wish to see a repeat of this incident. Mrs. Rankin has assured me that she will ensure the department has the appropriate mix of skills on staff in the future to carry out its core functions”, Steve Maharey said.

Contact: Michael Gibbs, Press Secretary, (04) 471 9154 or (021) 368 100

© 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>>