Calls for Rennie to go

Stuff reports:

States Services Minister Paula Bennett says commissioner Iain Rennie retains her confidence, despite opposition calls for him to be stood down over his handling of a sexual harassment complaint against former Cera boss Roger Sutton. …

Labour leader Andrew Little has called for Rennie to be dumped.

“The idea that you arrange a press conference for a senior public servant, about whom a finding of serious misconduct has been made, it is such a lack of judgment that I think it goes to his fitness to do the job,” he said. “He [Rennie] should be stood down and an investigation be conducted into how he came to make that decision.”

Bennett has confirmed she sought “constant” assurances that the investigation was “thorough and professional”. “I have expressed to the state services commissioner that I am disappointed with the handling of Mr Sutton’s resignation last Monday, and he accepts that it should have been handled differently, that there are lessons he has learnt, and that there will never be a repeat.”

On the substantive matter, I’m not convinced (on the evidence to date) that Rennie’s actions have reached the threshold where the head of the state sector in NZ should resign. Yes he made the wrong call in allowing the press conference, but I think one needs to be careful about having state sector CEOS forced out due to political pressure. I would expect a removal to be justified only if there was an ongoing series of wrong calls on multiple issues, rather than one situation handled badly.

On the issue of process, the Government can’t actually simply sack the State Services Commissioner. he can only be sacked by way of resolution of the House of Representatives. S16 of the State Sector Act 1988 states they can only be suspended by the Governor-General for up to 21 days, and they resume their job unless House of Representatives declares by resolution they ought to be removed from office. This shows that the threshold for removal is set very high.