Curran out of Cabinet after second blunder
Labour MP and minister Clare Curran has been removed from Cabinet.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she removed Curran from Cabinet and accepted her offer to resign her government digital services portfolio and open government responsibilities, following a second failure to properly declare a meeting. The meeting that led to Curran’s demotion was with entrepreneur Derek Handley over the role of the Government’s chief technology officer.
In February, Curran met Handley at her Beehive office in her capacity as Minister of Government Digital Services to discuss his interest in the vacant role. The meeting took place after a first unsuccessful recruitment round.
As with approaches from other interested parties, the minister directed Handley to register his interest with officials.
It was not recorded in Curran’s diary and neither the minister’s staff nor officials were made aware of it. Curran subsequently omitted information about the meeting in an answer to a recent written parliamentary question.
‘‘The failure to record the meeting in her diary; inform her staff and officials; and accurately answer parliamentary questions has left the minister open to the accusation that she deliberately sought to hide the meeting,’’ Ardern said.
Curran’s failure to declare the meeting with Handley comes after similar issues surrounding a meeting with Carol Hirschfeld, then a senior executive of state-owned broadcaster Radio NZ, earlier in the year. Curran did not immediately declare a meeting with Hirschfeld at a Wellington cafe in an answer to a written question from a National MP, saying she had considered it to be an ‘‘informal’’ catchup. She has admitted this was ‘‘naive’’.
Hirschfeld resigned from Radio NZ after repeatedly telling her
‘‘I have let myself and the prime minister down and my resignations today are the consequence of my error.’’ Clare Curran
bosses the meeting was coincidental and not planned (she is now Stuff’s head of video/audio and content partnerships). This story fell apart when her bosses confronted her with evidence showing the meeting was planned.
Ardern said Curran’s actions over the Handley meeting was the second ‘‘misjudgment, and is not in keeping with my expectations, or the minister’s expectations of herself’’. As a result, Ardern decided to remove Curran from Cabinet.
‘‘Transparency is important, even more so ... given her open government responsibilities.’’
Curran said she took full responsibility for not following proper process. The meeting should have been in her diary and her staff should have been informed, she said. ‘‘I have let myself and the prime minister down and my resignations today are the consequence of my error.
‘‘I am committed to making our government more open and ensuring that creatives and innovators in digital services have a voice at the table. I’m proud of the work I have undertaken.’’ Curran will retain the ministerial portfolios of broadcasting and associate ACC minister, and will be a minister outside Cabinet.
Chris Hipkins will take back the open government responsibilities and Megan Woods will take over the digital services portfolio. Ardern apologised to Handley, saying he was brought into the issue through no fault of his own. She said the issue was entirely about Curran’s conduct, not Handley’s.