David Farrar: A nonsense issue

The Herald reports:

Senior Minister Erica Stanford sent official briefings to her personal email account – an action discouraged by Parliament’s Cabinet Manual.

Stanford says she forwarded the emails so she could print them at home or at her electorate office, often while being away from Wellington for work.

Her electorate office printer was only connected to the Parliamentary server last month, she said.

Parliament’s Cabinet Manual – a rulebook for Government ministers – says “as far as possible” ministers should not use their personal email accounts or phone numbers for ministerial business.

Forwarding yourself an e-mail so you can print it out at home, is not using a personal account for ministerial business. That would be if you were e-mailing other people about ministerial business – not e-mailing yourself.

The purpose of the rule is to make sure ministerial correspondence is captured by government systems. It is not to make it hard for a Minister to print out a document.

Sometimes people who knew a Minister before they became an MP may e-mail them on their personal e-mail address. If it relates to official business, then best practice would be to cc any reply to your official address so it is captured by the DIA system.

This is much ado about nothing.

UPDATE: Roger Partridge has a great take here.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.