Key seeks further SSC inquiry

John Key has asked Mark Prebble to re-engage Don Hunn to inquire into the hiring of Clare Curran after she was recommended by David Parker for a communications position. I want to focus on one quote:

“Ministers must know that any such comments they make to officials, no matter how casual they seem, carry the potential inference of ministerial wishes and will influence officials.”

Now this can not be stressed too strongly. If you want to know how high up the list of priorities, keeping the Minister happy is – it’s an 12 on a scale from 1 to 10. Even a musing out loud from a Minister can leads to teams of officials being assigned to look into that musing.

A Government Department has one and only one customer – their Minister.  Sure they may interact with the public (and do a good job of it) but the person they need to keep happy above all others is the Minister.

So when a Minister suggests to Departmental officials that Mr X or Ms Y would be a useful person to hire, that isn’t the same as anyone else suggesting the same.