Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has expressed support for MBIE’s chief executive, hours after he was found to have deliberately misled a select committee.
The Privileges Committee found on Wednesday that Nic Blakeley and MBIE’s former deputy secretary in charge of Immigration NZ, Alison McDonald, deliberately misled the Education and Workforce Committee when answering questions about the failed Immigration Capability Biometric Upgrade project (BCU) in March.
“The ministry would have been aware that in choosing to answer as it did it was certain that the committee would have been misled … on this basis, we find that the ministry deliberately misled the Education and Workforce Committee and, in doing so, committed a contempt,” the committee found.
I don’t understand how this is survivable. I’m sure Blackly and McDonald are very good people who made an uncharacteristic error of judgment. But unless there is a serious consequence for misleading a select committee, other public servants will potentially do likewise.
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
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