Justice done, but Curran may be too

Exercising discipline can be one of the trickiest tasks for any party leader, especially a prime minister.

It would perhaps help if each prime minister left the next one a set of “sentencing guidelines” because relativity is important, if not between governments, certainly within them.

The test is: “Is it fair?” And the test needs to be satisfied for the voter and for the party.

In the case of Clare Curran, she has been demoted from inside Cabinet to outside Cabinet and lost two of her four portfolios.

The crime was not just giving a wrong answer in a written parliamentary question by failing to declare a meeting she had with a particular person. It was failure to do the absolute basics — record her meeting with a prospective candidate for the role of chief technology officer, Derek Handley.

There were two aggravating features: she was Minister for Open Government, and this meeting was anything but open. It was also a second offence, having failed earlier this year to declare a meeting she had with Carol Hirschfeld which ultimately cost the broadcaster her job.

In both cases, it was not the meetings but the false information given in written answers about meetings she had had. In both cases, Curran’s plea in mitigation was they were genuine oversights.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern does not want to set the bar too low. She does not want to demote a minister every time a wrong answer

vacancy. “I believe it was a conversation working through when the minister had first ever had contact with one of the candidates.

“It was not malicious . . . she simply cannot recall the reason why it was not included in her diary. That’s not good enough, that’s why she has been removed from Cabinet.”

The State Services Commission (SSC) will examine the CTO appointment process to ensure the HandleyCurran meeting had no bearing on process or outcome. The SSC will report is given. But she does not want to tolerate sloppiness over basic ministerial behaviour.

Phil Twyford lost his Civil Aviation Authority responsibilities when he was investigated for using a cellphone on a plane after the doors had closed. And he got it back. That was proportionate.

Clare Curran’s punishment is as well. Sacking her completely would have created issues of relativity for future ministerial “crimes and punishments”. Not punishing Curran at all would expose Ardern to claims she was going soft on her former flatmate.

It goes without saying that Curran is on a final warning. But it may be that her fate is already sealed. Her harsher punishment may lie ahead in 2019 or 2020 when Ardern has her first reshuffle.

before the appointment is made.

Handley remains a candidate for the CTO position. An appointment is expected to be made shortly.

The meeting was the first time Handley and Curran had met, Ardern said.

Ardern said the issue was entirely about Curran’s conduct, not Handley’s.

“I want to express my sincere apologies to Mr Handley who has been brought into this issue through no fault of his own”.