PM's Post Cab: Prebble's Inability To Regurgitate Setchell Conversation Defended
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The Prime Minister for yet another week spent a good part of her post cabinet press conference defending the public
service over the long running 'Setchell affair.'
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Last week the State Services Commission (SSC) initiated an inquiry into the public service recruitment and employment of
Madeleine Setchell – a recruitment process that eventually led to the resignation of Minister for the Environment David
Benson-Pope.
Today at her regular post cabinet press conference the Prime Minister announced that she still had confidence in the
State Services Commissioner Mark Prebble who had since last week decided that his office needed the assistance of a
former State Services Commissioner Don Hunn to handle parts of the inquiry
During the post cabinet press conference it was discovered that both the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and
the State Services Minister Annette King had been in touch with Mr Prebble regarding bringing in outside assistance for
the inquiry.
"The suggestion was made by the Minister in several phone calls and also by the DPMC that someone independent should be
brought in to assist the inquiry," explained the Prime Minister
The Prime Minister considered that placing the inquiry in Mr Hunn's hands was "the right decision."
During the furore over the sacking of Ms Setchell from her position at the Ministry for the Environment as a
communications manager Dr Prebble had put pen to paper for an article in the Dominion-Post.
Dr Prebble's article effectively cleared the way the Madeline Setchell employment case had been handled.
Missing from Dr Prebble's article however was the fact that the former Minister for the Environment David Benson-Pope
had informed Dr Logan that he [Mr Benson-Pope] would not feel able to discuss certain things with Ms Setchell in 'a free
and frank way'. This conversation which eventually would lead to Mr Benson-Pope's downfall was noticable by its glaring
absence in Dr Prebble's Dominion opinion piece.
The Prime Minister explained to the media that Dr Prebble's inability to recall this vital conversation may have been
because "[Dr Prebble] had lodged it away in some deep recess of his memory."
"It wasn't regurgitated [from Dr Prebble's memory] when Mr Rennie was compiling his report and that is unfortunate from
my point of view because I did rely on that report," added the Prime Minister
"I believe Dr Prebble is an honest man and he will want the inquiry to be absolutely full and describe what happened and
how state sector practice can be improved in the future," said the Prime Minister.
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As well as the faulty memory of the State Services Commissioner the Prime Minister also devoted a good chunk of the
conference to issues surrounding the potential sale of Auckland Airport
Listen to the Prime Minister's press conference
ENDS