Fallout from the CTO fiasco spreads from Clare Curran to – oh, look! – the PM

The  mystery over  Derek Handley’s appointment as  the government’s Chief Technology Officer, and then its abrupt revocation,  has deepened.

Handley’s own revelation of  his email  exchanges with Prime Minister Jacinda  Ardern has shown at best she  was “economical  with the truth” (as commentators  like Bryce  Edwards put it)  in her answers  to  Parliament.  Did  she  just have a  lapse of memory  (something which seems to afflict Winston Peters more frequently these days), about those  emails?

Then there is the plainly shabby  treatment of Handley over the revocation of the  Cabinet  decision to put  him in the job, for which he returned with his family from  New York.   Clare Curran  was  wrapped up  in her own  misery  over the appointment  and her   successor,  Megan Woods, got around to apologising to Handley  only after he had  published  his  side of the story  in the  New Zealand Herald.  The  newspaper front-paged it with lines like

” … the [Handley] family arrived back in the country days before finding out his contract was scrapped.”

CTO appointment process ends with a payout and a review of the need for such a post

The government had  little option but to kill off the process of  appointing a Chief Technology Officer.  It had not only blown away the  political career  of  Clare Curran   but  has severely damaged  the credibility  of the   government, not least the prime minister’s.

For National  it has been a  gift  which  keeps  on giving.  There’s  almost  certain to  be  some more unpleasant  revelations to come  from  the emails  between Curran and  the  PM’s  “friend”, Derek  Handley.  Though they may take some time  to emerge into  daylight, these will prolong what is a disgraceful  saga, one  which  has  few parallels  in the history  of state-sector  appointments.

Megan  Woods  drew the short  straw  to make the latest  announcement on the debacle,  which of  course was made on  Friday, just before the weekend.  This continues the  not-so-subtle technique  being played out in recent  weeks as the  government  tries to minimise in terms of publicity the damage it has been doing to itself.

How the Govt’s IT girl and her email secrets left Chris Hipkins floundering

The  government  is  sinking deeper  into the hole  left behind by Clare Curran   over the  appointment of a  Chief Technology  Officer.

Questioned  in Parliament,   State Services  Minister  Chris Hipkins sounded far from confident  when he  stuttered  about issues of  “natural  justice”.

He  was  floundering  not   just because of the  secret  emails  Curran  had  sent  Derek Handley,  whom she  favoured  – it seems – as  the CTO,  but because it turns  out  Handley  is a friend of   PM  Jacinda  Ardern.

Not  surprisingly,  National  thinks  the whole  process   has been  “tainted”.

More fallout from the Curran affair could follow inspection of her G-mail account

The  Curran  affair has  ended  with the  Dunedin South MP  confessing she could not stand the  “intolerable pressure”  she  had been  placed under.  Voters  may not  care  much  about either her  departure from the Ardern  ministry, nor the  causes  which lay behind it.

But her resignation has  altered the  dynamics  within  the  current  government.  Some of the gloss  has  washed  off  the coalition and – more particularly – has washed off PM  Jacinda Ardern (although she  can claim the  choice  of Clare Curran as a  minister  was made by the Labour caucus,  not by herself).

There  may  be  a  degree of  sympathy  for  Curran  who  – some say – had good instincts  for  the issues within  her  portfolios.  But then there’s  the  old  saying,  if you can’t stand the heat….

Among the questions about Curran – can she make a Cabinet comeback?

Why would a PM want to retain as a minister someone who has committed a cardinal  mistake not once but twice? It’s a question with no immediately transparent answers.

Losing a seat in Cabinet and some portfolios may seem a severe setback, if not a mortal blow, to a political career — but if you keep the two portfolios you really covet it’s not too much of a hardship.

The financial penalty isn’t too severe either – a Cabinet minister’s annual salary is $296,007.  This drops to $249,839 for ministers outside cabinet.