RHYS HURLEY: Taxpayers' Union Investigation

A Ministry of Justice bureaucrat got caught smuggling gold bars for a gang.

In case you missed it, Russell Harrison, former Lotto presenter, was arrested in June 2021 and remained on his taxpayer-funded salary for five years before pleading guilty to smuggling gold bars into Turkey for the notorious Comancheros motorcycle gang.

Your humble Taxpayers’ Union knew this had to be just the tip of the iceberg, so our investigations team kept digging and uncovered that, while on gardening leave, he had a starring role in a Health NZ advert.

Yesterday, we revealed that a single ad cost the taxpayer $490,000

Did the Minister read our update?

The pressure we kept on the Minister about this case clearly worked.

Yesterday afternoon, the Minister of Justice announced a rapid review into the Ministry by the Public Service Commission, describing his trust in the department as “seriously shaken”.

When we heard about Russell Harrison, we knew he couldn't possibly be the only case. So, we dug a little deeper and fired off Official Information Act requests across the public service.

Call it a coincidence, but just an hour after Minister Goldsmith's announcement, our investigations team received a response from the Ministry of Justice.

To no-one's surprise, he was not the only member of staff on gardening leave pending an investigation.

In fact, the Ministry of Justice alone had four other people on gardening leave, under investigation for either criminal charges or serious misconduct.

And it didn't stop there. The Ministry of Social Development had eight. Oranga Tamariki had 14 people on paid leave, one of them for 35 weeks!

It's a victory for taxpayers that Minister Goldsmith has called for a review into the Ministry of Justice.

But there's one small problem.

When we asked the Public Service Commission if they had anyone on gardening leave, they refused to answer the request.

The part of the public service responsible for the investigation won't themselves open up to scrutiny. The irony is painful.

The timing of Minister Goldsmith's inquiry announcement - and the response from the Ministry to our investigations team - show that the Government act when they feel the pressure.

We'll keep the pressure on and keep uncovering where else the taxpayer is paying for bureaucrats on gardening leave.

Rhys Hurley is Investigative Lead at the Taxpayer's Union