EXCLUSIVE: What publicly funded Wellington Bureaucrats are doing when you aren’t watching

TDB is out there each week pushing against the Wellington Bureaucrats and their interests.

We have been never ceasing in our criticism of the neoliberal welfare experiment that is Oranga Tamariki, the spiteful nature of MSD, the purposely obtuse WINZ and the malicious way the State mistreats the poorest and most vulnerable amongst us.

Once you’ve experienced first hand the abuse of the State, you won’t tolerate it happening to others.

Generating such scrutiny gets threats.

Award winning Journalist Aaron Smale connects the dots in todays exclusive…

Officials’ finger pointing over abuse scandals

Comment: Tomorrow the country’s top public servant fronts up at the Royal Commission into abuse in state care. Aaron Smale argues that an odd attempt to warn off a blogger from criticism of the social development ministry shows how raw the nerves are at the highest levels in Wellington

Sometimes Wellington moves in mysterious ways.

I was recently phoned by blogger Martyn ‘Bomber’ Bradbury with a query. He’d been getting some heat from the press secretary of Public Services Commission boss Peter Hughes. But it wasn’t Bomber’s own words that were getting him unwelcome attention. It was words I’d written and Bradbury had directly quoted that were stirring up concern in the office of the country’s top bureaucrat.

I don’t know Bradbury and I think I might have read a sum total of one of his blogs after stumbling on it through some Google detour. Blogs and content in that genre are not a section of the media ecosystem that I have spent any time dwelling in, although they do have their audience and that’s fine.

However, Bradbury has picked up on the coverage I’ve done on the abuse of children in state custody and quoted verbatim from some of my stories. And it was these quotes that caught the attention of Hughes’ press secretary Grahame Armstrong, and presumably Hughes himself. He seemed particularly agitated by the reporting of an incident I’ve mentioned several times over the past couple of years. I even wrote an entire column on it – the use of private investigators by government departments to try and discredit victims of state abuse taking a civil case to court. Specifically, I focused my attention on MSD during the period that Peter Hughes was in charge.

Bradbury was at first slightly panicked by these emails from the office of the most powerful individual in the public service. He read the tone of the emails as a veiled threat and was worried he might have some kind of legal exposure. But then he was perplexed. If it was a problem that he was quoting from my stories then why were my stories still online? Was there some corrected version that he’d missed? So Bradbury did the obvious thing and called me and asked – have I had any pushback on my stories that mention this issue?

The answer is a resounding no. I haven’t heard a squeak.

…here was their email to me…

Kia Ora Martyn

I’m writing to you in response to two blogs: Aloha Luxon & the concerning reason why Oranga Tamariki may be kneecapping Children’s Commissioner and Why Labour refuse to stop the gagging of the Children’s Commissioner

I’m not sure what has happened, but in both blogs this week you have repeated a factual error published in another blog in April.

As I said in April (email attached), the Public Service Commissioner expects, from time to time, to be subject to criticism in the media which, even if unreasonable, he often lets go in the interests of robust journalism and public debate. I also said the Commissioner respects your vigorous style of journalism.

However, your latest blogs contains an important factual error that needs to be corrected.

You wrote:

Hughes was in charge when MSD used private investigators to try to dig dirt on victims and witnesses in a test case on state abuse that went to court.

This is incorrect. As I pointed out in April, some claims had already been filed in the High Court.  Preparations for one case (the White case), which went to trial in 2007, began in 1999, before Mr Hughes was appointed chief executive. To assist with the preparations for the White case, private investigators were engaged by Crown Law – not MSD – to locate and approach witnesses.

The 2018 Inquiry into the use of external security consultants by government agencies considered the White case. The Inquiry found Crown Law breached the Public Service Code of Conduct by providing broad instructions to a private investigator. MSD was found in breach at the lower end given Crown Law had the primary responsibility to manage the case. The Inquiry did not see anything to indicate that senior managers at MSD knew about or directed the potential use of surveillance or a covert approach.[page 44, 3.76 of the Inquiry report].

You also wrote:

Ironically, it was Hughes who set up the inquiry as head of State Services (as it was then called), but he made no comment on his own culpability that was exposed by its findings.

Mr Hughes was upfront about this at the time. In a published response, he said: “In relation to the Ministry, because I was Chief Executive at the time, I have referred this matter to the incoming Deputy State Services Commissioner to consider and determine. I have also referred these matters to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based institutions for consideration.” That was the appropriate thing to do.

Mr Hughes did not know about the use of surveillance in the White case. If surveillance was used in the White case, he did not know about, did not authorise it and did not condone it.

Mr Hughes was focused on a new approach to managing the historic claims of abuse, fixing the process for the future.

I’m only asking that you correct the record of your published blogs and don’t repeat the same mistakes in any future blogs.

I trust you will give this matter urgent consideration. I am happy to discuss if you prefer. You can contact me on 021 *** ****

…here was my go fuck yourself response…

The fucking ‘incorrect sentence’ is a direct quote from another bloody news story.

…to paraphrase the Wu-Tang Clan, TDB ain’t nuthin’ to fuck with.

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