Gerry Brownlee MP
National Party State Services Spokesman

3 August 2007

PM must say if Prebble has her confidence

National Party State Services spokesman Gerry Brownlee says Helen Clark must exercise consistency in her handling of those involved in the politically motivated sacking of Madeleine Setchell from the Environment Ministry.

“If David Benson-Pope resigned for failing to tell the whole story, if Environment boss Hugh Logan’s job was under threat because he failed to disclose all he knew, then State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble must be in the gun, too.

“On last Saturday’s Agenda programme, Helen Clark said she was ‘unhappy’ with Mr Logan’s handling of the issue. Surely, Dr Prebble’s position is less tenable, given that he is supposed to be the watchdog for public service neutrality.”

Mr Brownlee says a report this morning suggested that Mr Logan had offered his resignation over the Setchell case.

“The public will want to know whether they have been misled by the SSC boss, who wrote an entire newspaper opinion piece which forgets to mention he knew about Mr Benson-Pope’s meddling.”

Radio New Zealand has reported that Dr Prebble’s memory only improved after he was reminded by Deputy Commissioner Iain Rennie.

“That’s alarming and raises a legitimate question about whether there has been some kind of effort to protect the former Minister.

“The three people who did know about David Benson-Pope’s interference all appear to have forgotten they knew. Coincidence?”

ENDS

TVNZs Agenda - July 28, 2007 -

HELEN Well I'm very unhappy that the State Service Commission was not told the full story because we're entitled to rely on report as the full story.

GUYON Who are you unhappy with there?
HELEN Well I'm unhappy that when the State Services Commission compiled the report which was released on Friday a week ago that Mr Logan did not disclose the extent of the conversation with Mr Benson-Pope, a lot of things would have been a lot easier if that had happened.

GUYON So does Hugh Logan have a future do you think as Chief Executive of the Ministry to the Environment?
HELEN When the Deputy State Services Commissioner spoke yesterday he was very clear that he was unhappy with this and there were matters that he was reserving his judgement on, the employment of a Chief Executive of course at that point is a matter for them.

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