Risks in being ‘super relaxed'

Otago Daily Times

07-05-2025

The casual approach taken by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to accusations minister Erica Stanford failed to follow Cabinet Manual rules about the use of private email accounts for ministerial business is concerning.
When the issue was first put to him on Monday by 1News he said he understood Ms Stanford had been using her personal email on very few occasions. She had technical issues with printing.
But when 1News pressed on, telling him it had two folders with hundreds of pages of documents and emails she had been sending and receiving from her Gmail account, he continued to blame it on technical and printing issues and the fact she received unsolicited emails. She had made changes to processes subsequently.
He said he was ''super relaxed'' about it.
However, the 2023 update of the Cabinet Manual says ''as far as possible, ministers should not use their personal email account or phone number to conduct ministerial business''.
Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ
If a minister had to use a private account or phone number, perhaps because official systems could not be accessed, strict conditions applied.
It is hard to accept Ms Stanford, who has been reported using her own account as recently as March this year, was following these rules.
Anyone who has ever had information technology or printer issues will be sympathetic to someone in Ms Stanford's situation having such problems. But if these technical issues prevailed for more than a year without resolution that would have warranted an inquiry in itself.
There has already been a tongue-in-cheek suggestion her IT woes might be the result of the government's enthusiasm for cutting staff seen as backroom.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has been scornful about the technology excuse. He says technology in Parliament has improved dramatically in the last few years and there is no longer a need to use personal email accounts to print documents.
Ms Stanford has described her behaviour as untidy.
To many, this might seem like a storm in a teacup. Ms Stanford says she has disclosed all the emails on her private account as required for the purposes of the Official Information Act.
Great.
But as director of the Integrity Institute Dr Bryce Edwards points out, unlike official email systems which are proactively managed by public servants, with copies accessible to aides and advisors who process information requests, staffers cannot usually search a private account for OIA responses. It is something the Minister would control.
The risk is that something which should be disclosed is not, and how would anyone know?
The laidback approach of the PM towards Ms Stanford's behaviour is in stark contrast to National's merciless pursuit of former Labour Minister Clare Curran over her use of Gmail, one of the issues which led to her fall from grace.
As well as the issue of the OIA, there are also concerns about the security of sending information over private email.
It should not be forgotten one of Ms Stanford's roles is as the Lead Co-ordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institutions. We would hope that her correspondence in that realm has not involved her private email.
Mr Luxon, when dismissing concerns about Ms Stanford's behaviour, spoke of the great job she was doing, as if somehow this offset any concern over rule compliance.
There would be little dispute Ms Stanford is one of the government's most competent and hard-working ministers, with three big portfolios.
She has thrown herself into the difficult education portfolio with gusto, pushing through change at a pace seldom seen in the sector, although not without controversy.
But having a good work ethic does not mean the rules do not apply to you.
Mr Luxon should, at the very least, have given the clear direction publicly to all ministers this behaviour is not good enough and there will be consequences for anybody not adhering to the rules in future.
Disappointingly, in Parliament on Tuesday when questions arose about this, Ms Stanford could not resist a petty dig at Labour education spokeswoman Willow-Jean Prime. It was not her finest moment.