Agency boss quits over use of spies
Report reveals some disturbing behaviour, says PM
The head of Southern Response has fallen on his sword after a damning State Services Inquiry found the government insurance agency hired private security consultants to spy on claimants.
Greater Christchurch Regeneration Minister Megan Woods last night accepted the resignation of Southern Response chairman Ross Butler, saying the agency’s use of Thompson and Clark security consultants to secretly infiltrate private meetings and make covert recordings was totally unacceptable.
“I acknowledge that Southern Response originally hired Thompson and Clark out of legitimate concerns for staff health and safety. That is appropriate.
“What the report makes clear however is as the process went on, surveillance was increasingly used as a tool for reputation management, not for the protection of staff safety.
“Secretly infiltrating private claimant meetings and recording closed door conversations without anyone’s knowledge are not appropriate ways for government entities to manage their reputations”.
Woods contacted Butler last night for a “please explain” and later accepted his resignation.
“New Zealanders need to be able to trust that covert surveillance is only ever used in the public interest, with appropriate safeguards and to the highest ethical standards.”
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the SSC’s inquiry into the use of private investigators by government agencies had revealed some disturbing and unethical behaviour.
“I think there should have been alarm bells . . . Reading the report, it seems obvious to me that some of this behaviour was patently wrong,” Ardern said yesterday.
State Services Minister Chris Hipkins said the report findings were “pretty damning”.
“There’s been clear follow-up action to refer them to the relevant authorities where there may have been a breach of the law or the relevant professional body,” he said.
In his report, State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes called some behaviour “an affront to democracy” and has laid a complaint with police over the actions of private investigation firm Thompson and Clark.
Hughes detailed a list of breaches of the State Service Code of Conduct, including potentially illegal recordings of insurance claimants, public sector employees accessing the NZ Transport Agency database for Thompson and Clark (TCIL) and spying on the Green Party and iwi.
Separately, police released a report which found 16 officers over 15 years had given information to TCIL, and a further four had moonlighted for private investigation companies.
NZ Institute of Professional Investigators Ron McQuilter, managing director of private investigation firm Paragon, said he did not have concerns about the conduct of the wider private investigation industry.
“We know the rules. The issue in the report is really the conduct of Thompson and Clark.”
Hughes apologised to people whose privacy had been breached by state servants or their contractors.
He revealed he laid a complaint with police yesterday over TCIL potentially unlawfully recording closed meetings of insurance claimants discussing legal action against Southern Response.
Hughes also found two former Ministry for Primary Industries workers engaged in secondary employment with TCIL had accessed the NZTA database on behalf of TCIL.
Hughes also looked at the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and found its service “as a whole” breached the Code of Conduct by failing to maintain an appropriate level of objectivity and impartiality.
“MBIE’s management of its regulatory responsibilities in the petroleum and minerals areas . . . showed evidence of poor regulatory practice,” Hughes said.
He was scathing in his criticism of agencies’ actions against Kiwis exercising their democratic rights through TCIL reporting on the activities of groups such as Greenpeace, the Green Party, the Mana Movement and some Northland East Coast and Taranaki iwi groups, which he said were treated as a “security threat”.
“This is an affront to democracy.” Hughes said he had issued new standards which agencies would need to comply with by April 30.
Thompson and Clark director Gavin Clark said it would consider all aspects of the report but he accepted the findings that some processes could have been more stringent.
An internal review is under way.