Bennett in about-face
Waipareira Trust social worker Ana Bennett left her job after the department run by her mother, Social Development Minister Paula Bennett, cut funding to the programme she worked on.
Ana Bennett made an about-face and handed in her resignation last month, just hours after committing to help Waipareira fight negative reports from her mother’s ministry.
The West Auckland-based Te Whanau O Waipareira Trust, headed by former Labour MP John Tamihere, is locked in a legal battle with the Government over the decision to withdraw funding for the provision of the Family Start programme, and on Friday won a last-minute High Court injunction.
The trust was one of five Family Start programme providers that Mrs Bennett announced in April would lose their contracts because of poor performance, but Justice Robert Dobson has granted ‘‘interim relief’’ to Waipareira until a full hearing can be held.
The High Court heard last week that Ana Bennett, 24, was working on the project with Waipareira as a social worker.
After the decision to end funding for the programme, ministry officials conducted a monitoring visit and criticised Ana Bennett’s relative newness, saying she did not get sufficient induction into the programme.
Trust lawyer Peter Thorp said Ana Bennett took exception to the criticism, echoed by Mr Tamihere, who agreed she was an excellent staff member. He asked her for an affidavit to fight the finding.
‘‘I did have a conversation with her to identify whether the criticisms were true,’’ Mr Tamihere said. ‘‘She rejected them vigorously, and I put it to her, would she be prepared to make a statement to that effect. She said absolutely.
‘‘That’s where I left it at 9.30am,’’ he said. ‘‘At 3.30pm she supplied her resignation on the basis she felt compromised because of her mother.’’
Ana Bennett now works for Presbyterian Support’s Family Works team. It is not known why she left, and last week she declined to say if she spoke to her mother before her change of heart.
Mrs Bennett also declined to be interviewed, but when asked if she had given her daughter advice said in a statement: ‘‘As a mum, I talk to my daughter all the time . . . she is an independent woman who is capable of making up her own mind.’’
She said she transferred decision-making responsibilities to her colleague, Tony Ryall, when her daughter started at Waipareira, to avoid any perceived conflict of interest.
Mr Thorp said the trust was ‘‘justifiably criticised’’ in July last year over its Family Start programme, but mediation was held and it was given 12 months to correct flaws.
Six months later, without warning, the trust was told its funding was being cut, he said.
Mr Thorp said monitoring was in place and Waipareira was in the top 10 of the 35 Family Start programmes nationwide.