Public service organisations have been urged to "take every possible action" to shut down leaking. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Stronger whistleblowing laws and more emphasis on free and frank advice are needed to balance out a crackdown on leaks, the Public Service Association (PSA) union says.
The campaign against leaks was exposed in a leaked email from a department boss to staff, after Commissioner Sir Brian Roche urged chief executives to "take every possible action" to shut down leaking, including sacking those found responsible where appropriate.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said such dismissals would require fair process.
"We don't condone leaking, but we cannot see a blanket rule that public servants are dismissed when leaks occur. New Zealand law requires a full and fair investigation process, and employers have to enter that process with an open mind," she said.
"Public servants must not leak. But there is a legal duty to provide free and frank advice to the government of the day, and we'd like to see the government also reiterating those expectations alongside these messages about leaking."
Pointing to an academic article by Massey's Richard Shaw and Victoria University of Wellington's Chris Eichbaum from 2023, she said there had been a chilling effect on the provision of free and frank advice over multiple governments.
"Our members have reported to us that they have been advised not to provide certain commentary in advice or to only do so via phone and that there is direct ministerial involvement in matters that would usually sit within departments," she said.
"We saw this with the approach taken to the survey of public servants recently. The chilling effect of this is exacerbated in an environment of constant cuts and job losses."
She said Associate Health Minister Casey Costello making accusations in November about a public servant for internal communications about heated tobacco products was another case.
PSA national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
The PSA at the time wrote to Sir Brian saying that would have a chilling effect, made worse by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's comments that "appear to conflate this case with a separate issue from last month".
Fitzsimons urged the government to look at strengthening New Zealand's whistleblowing law, the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022.
"The current whistleblowing laws in New Zealand put a very high threshold on serious wrongdoing. We would call on government to review those laws, but at the end of the day public servants shouldn't leak, it's not professional to do so, and we advise against it."
The Act limits whistleblowing to exposing "serious wrongdoing", which includes posing a serious risk to health, safety, or the maintenance of law, corrupt or irregular use of public funds or resources, or breaking the law.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that when leaks happened it undermined the public service as a whole.
"They do the public service a big disservice frankly and the public's trust in the public service is a problem and that's why I think it's pretty unfair because we've got some great public servants in New Zealand, we're very well served by some awesome people.
"We've always had leaking in different governments but it's ultimately up to individuals are trusted to serve the government of the day and to do so in a politically neutral way."
ACT leader David Seymour said those found leaking should "absolutely" face repercussions.
He had this message for public servants:
"Your career as a public servant is a part of your life. For all of your life you're going to be invested in this country working and you have no right to undermine the constitutional setup and framework that has made this country a success, that you've benefited from.
"Some of the people who are the people leaking would really struggle to get a job outside the cocoon of the public service, because in the private sector honesty and integrity are highly valued."
He said the public service was "far too large" and "if we want to start reducing it maybe we need to leak out a few leakers".
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