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Friday 8 June, 2012

Bronwyn Pullar Interview to Screen on '60 Minutes'

The whistle-blower in the ACC privacy fiasco, Bronwyn Pullar, speaks to Melanie Reid on 60 Minutes in an exclusive television interview, broadcast this Sunday (June 10) on TV3.

The special 60 Minutes investigation ‘The Eye of the Storm’ will also feature Pullar’s tape recording of her infamous December meeting with ACC officials, which has never before been available to the New Zealand public.

Bronwyn Pullar hit headlines in March 2012, after she was mistakenly sent an email from ACC with a copy of a file containing the private details of almost 7000 fellow claimants, setting off a chain of events which led to the resignation of a Cabinet Minister and a slew of official inquiries – including a police investigation.

As the controversy grew, ACC claimed Pullar had threatened two senior managers at a meeting in December – without realising she had recorded the entire meeting. Excerpts from this tape will air in the programme.

Throughout the scandal, Pullar has declined television interviews. Now she speaks out as part of a 60 Minutes investigation into her case.

“I think the thing with the file was, this was just a massive balls-up,” Pullar tells journalist Melanie Reid.

“How could they send me a file with 7,000 names in it and not be aware of it? That’s what I couldn’t get my head around. But really, this issue was bigger than me.”

But Pullar’s concerns, and the 60 Minutes story, are broader than just the privacy issue. Pullar tells Melanie Reid that she believes there has been a campaign to discredit her as a distraction from the real issues she wanted highlighted.

“Yeah, you know, ’she’s off on a tangent’, ‘she’s got no credibility’, don’t listen to her, there’s no substance to what’s going on here, she’s just, this is just an isolated person who’s got an axe to grind with ACC. Well I’m sorry, this is not about me, this is about what ACC is doing to vulnerable disabled New Zealanders.”

The 60 Minutes investigation also includes:
- Revelations about a tainted assessment which forced ACC to apologise to Pullar, raising questions about how such procedures are carried out.
- The fact ACC’s systems failed to prevent a staff member banned from having anything more to do with her claim from continuing to interfere in her case.
- How ACC has slashed the number of people on long-term claims to record-low levels.

‘The Eye of the Storm’ screens on 60 Minutes, TV3, Sunday, at 7.30pm.

ENDS

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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