Minister of Social Services and Employment
Associate Minister of Education
(Tertiary Education)
23 December 1999

Embargoed until 12am, 26 December 1999

Government clear on future direction for WINZ

A post-election briefing paper prepared by Work and Income NZ (WINZ) for the Minister of Social Services and Employment will assist the Government to refocus the department, Steve Maharey said today.

"The Government has been very clear about the changes we want to see at WINZ. This week I have spoken with Mrs. Rankin and her senior officials and we went through the expectations which the new Government expects the department to deliver on.

"The WINZ briefing paper will be useful to the Government because it outlines many of the challenges that we also highlighted during the election campaign and in our policy. Getting WINZ to move off in a new direction is a key task for me as Minister", Steve Maharey said.

ENDS

Copies of the WINZ post-election briefing paper are available the Minister's office. Contact Michael Gibbs, Press Secretary, (04) 471 9154

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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>>