Grant Robertson

By Chris Ormond of NZPA

Wellington, March 18 NZPA - Leaks involving confidential National Party Cabinet documents shows there is a growing level of frustration at the secrecy surrounding issues which potentially have a big impact on the public, Labour MPs say.

State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie announced today the commission had launched inquiries into the unauthorised release of Government information relating to its stocktake of Crown minerals, and leaks relating to a Cabinet paper on proposed state service restructures.

Forest and Bird said during the week it had "learnt" the Government wanted to allow mining on the West Coast's Paparoa National Park, Great Barrier Island and on the Coromandel Peninsula.

The previous week unofficial information emerged about the Government's supposed plans to merge some public agencies.

The Government has not denied the merger reports, and says any plans to open conservation land to mining are still being looked at.

State Services Minister Tony Ryall called for the investigation into the leaks, saying the Government wanted to find if there were any security breaches, and whether procedural changes were needed as a result.

Known for using leaks against the Labour government when National was in opposition, Mr Ryall said very few of those leaks had come from the public service, and when they did, they were investigated.

The latest issue was more significant than others as it involved significant Cabinet papers, he said.

Mr Ryall said no conclusions should be drawn about the nature of the documents at the centre of the leaks, and that he had no strong views on who may be responsible.

Labour's state services spokesman Grant Robertson said, intentionally or not, leaks had happened in Parliament forever, and the ones in question were the result of National being too secretive about issues which were hugely relevant to many people.

Some public servants were probably feeling that leaks involving mining and public sector mergers were justified, he told NZPA.

Mr Robertson said he didn't know if the mining leak came from the Department of Conservation, but that department had many public servants who were extremely passionate about protecting New Zealand's conservation estate.

"I think they, along with many other New Zealanders, have probably been very concerned about the way National is going about the suggestion of mining the Schedule 4 land."

Regarding the mergers leak, Mr Robertson said he was able to say with some certainty that those agencies had been left completely in the dark about any such plans.

He said a relationship of trust was important between ministers and public servants, but the issue here was that the Government had been "attacking" the public service with resource and personnel cuts since it came into office.

"I think probably the relationship of respect may have broken down between some public servants and their ministers, and I think the ministers need to look in the mirror for the reasons for that."

He said pushing for a commission investigation was over-the-top when internal investigations by departments would have sufficed.

Fellow Labour MP Annette King said public service whistleblowers tended to emerge when they believed there was so much secrecy that the true story was not being told.

Mr Ryall's complaints were "a bit rich", and the double investigation showed the Government was getting worried.

"Maybe they might like to take into their confidence a bit more some of the public servants. From my experience they were very trustworthy," she said.