Parker must step aside

If you watched TV Three News last night (video here) you would have seen a former employee/contractor to the Environment Ministry make allegations which, if true, will end the careers of David Parker and Hugh Logan.

Erin Leigh said that Parker had Labour Party activist Clare Curran hired to push his own personal agenda, and that she was so angry at the appointment both she and her boss resigned in protest.

The Herald has a story here.

Parker is playing semantics when he says he did not instruct her to be hired. Of course he did not – he is unable to do so. But he obviously made the suggestion in such a way (and he never ever should even have made a suggestion) that it was taken as something to be done, breaking the Ministry’s own rules on competitive tenders, and against existing staff and contractors wishes who saw it as a political appointment.

Parker is Minister of State Services. The SSC is enquiring into this issue. I hope they do so by interviewing all witnesses under oath . But beyond doubt Parker must temporarily (at least) step aside as State Services Minister while the inquiry is under way.