Phil

GOFF

Foreign Affairs Spokesperson

01 March 2013 MEDIA STATEMENT

MFAT Witch Hunt Wastes $250,000

The Government’s hunt to find the source behind the unauthorised release of Foreign Affairs documents relating to last year’s botched restructuring has wasted a quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer’s money, says Phil Goff, Labour’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

“This has been a hugely expensive exercise, aggravated by the employment of Paula Rebstock. Her fees and allowances are already over $100,000 (including GST) for her part-time work.

“And it has been largely futile. All her inquiries have done is kept alive the issue of the Government’s bungled reorganisation at MFAT. That has further delayed the necessary healing and rebuilding process within the Ministry.

“The real question that Murray McCully should be asking himself is how he so quickly turned a Ministry which had always been committed, capable, disciplined and loyal into a dysfunctional and dispirited organisation.

“When you treat people appallingly and unfairly don’t expect loyalty in return.

“Murray McCully needs only to look at his own role and that of his CEO to find the real culprits for the botched reorganisation and its consequences.

“Murray McCully should have saved the taxpayers the quarter of a million dollars, taken responsibility for what he has done and resigned,” says Phil Goff.

labour.org.nz

ENDS

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