Thorn resigns

Vernon Small at Stuff reports:

The head of the Parliamentary Service, Geoff Thorn, has resigned in the wake of revelations the service handed over Fairfax reporter Andrea Vance’s access card and phone records to a ministerial inquiry.

Speaker David Carter said the general manager of Parliamentary Service tendered his resignation this morning.

“I have accepted his resignation with some regret, as during his tenure as general manager, Mr Thorn has overseen a significant improvement to the operation of Parliamentary Service,” he said.

“However, both he and I acknowledge that the confidence in Parliamentary Service has been undermined by events in recent weeks, and as general manager he accepts responsibility for this.”

That’s the honourable thing to do. I suspect the catalyst wasn’t so much the error by Datacom in handing over Vance’s phone records, but the fact Parliamentary Service denied it had happened and gave false information to the Speaker. That is incredibly serious. You’re not responsible for a contractor making a mistake, but you are responsible for making sure that any information given to your “Minister” is absolutely correct.