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Hooten boasts of flouting the law

By Steven | August 24, 2008

I guess you have to admire Matthew Hooten’s honesty for admitting that, as a Beehive staffer, he’s advised departments to breach the Official Information Act. And I don’t doubt that this government does the same thing. But I find this high-fiving about it pretty sickening:

As a Beehive staffer in theĀ 1990s, I regularly “suggested” that departments delay the release of information that could embarrass the government. My personal best was 12 months, an 11-month breach of the law.

Topics: General, Official Information Act | 2 Comments »

2 Responses to “Hooten boasts of flouting the law”

  1. dpf Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 6:20 am

    Steven – in the interests of fairness, some context would be useful. Matthew was criticising the Police for their 15 months of stonewalling on an OIA, and he voluntarily proffered the quote above, as a sign of some hypocrisy on his part. I saw it as part mea culpa.

  2. Steven Says:
    August 26th, 2008 at 9:57 am

    That’s sort-of true. But “my personal best” is an odd sounding mea culpa. Do you think he’ll act any differently under the next National regime?

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