Bennett's 'not-me-itis' doesn't inspire confidence

Paula Bennett’s continued shrugging off of any responsibility for the security breaches at Work and Income is doing nothing to alleviate the concerns thousands of Kiwis now have about access to their personal information, Labour’s Social Development spokesperson Jacinda Ardern says.

“While passing the buck is not a new Ministerial affliction, Ms Bennett’s latest efforts to do just that reveal a whole other level of not-me-itis.

“Answers to written questions lodged on a whole range of issues surrounding the security of information at MSD and Work and Income invariably come back with a ‘this is an operational matter and as such the responsibility of the Chief Executive’ response.

“Ms Bennett now tells us the interim report being prepared by Deloittes and due this week won’t be out until next week.

“Hopefully this means the report will capture the systemic issues that have been raised since the first breach was discovered.  However, given the Minister’s dismissive response to other questions, I seriously doubt that it will.

“New Zealanders’ confidence in the Ministry and in Work and Income is not an operational matter.

“The buck has to stop somewhere. In this case it is Ms Bennett who must ensure that it does,” said Jacinda Ardern.