Key breaks Valentine's promise

John Key has broken his Valentine’s Day promise this year to upgrade New Zealand’s IT systems. Eight months on privacy breaches at WINZ, IRD and ACC show it’s time to make good on his pledges, says Labour’s Revenue spokesperson David Clark.

“On Valentine’s Day this year John Key promised New Zealanders he would set out a plan to upgrade our computer systems. He even tried to woo us with talk of bringing in Google to fix the problems.

“Well John Key has proven himself to be not only another disappointing politician but also something of a feckless bachelor. Everyone knows you’re supposed to keep your promises on Valentine’s Day but we haven’t seen a plan and credible timeline to upgrade the Government’s IT systems.

“John Key has forgotten his promise. Eight months later he’s in the awkward position of saying sorry to thousands of people. It’s like he promised to call his Valentine’s date, forgot to, bumped into her eight months later and is blushing redder than his BlackBerry phone alert.

“John Key himself has called the Government’s computer systems ‘clunky’ and ‘outdated’. That’s cold comfort for clients of ACC, IRD and WINZ whose privacy has been breached due to the pressure on those organisations from archaic systems.

“In February the Prime Minister admitted the country was being ‘held hostage’ by outdated computers and that the IRD systems can’t handle any ‘radical changes’. Nothing has changed apart from thousands of privacy breaches resulting from the pressure put on organisations by these systems.

“John Key needs to honour his promises to New Zealand and show us a clear plan to improve our services before any more embarrassing breaches unfold.”