More casual lies

It turns out that John Key isn't the only one casually lying to Parliament at Question Time. Now we can add Nick Smith to the list:

Papers released under the Official Information Act indicate that ACC Minister Nick Smith has mislead Parliament, and tried to unfairly blame his department for his pre-emptive announcement of redundancies in late May, Grant Robertson, Labour State Services Spokesperson says.

“Nick Smith told Parliament in June that he had only learned ‘subsequently’ that he had announced redundancies at ACC before staff were to be told,” Grant Robertson said.

“However papers from the ACC show that he was briefed twice, once in writing, and once orally that staff were to be told about the redundancies the day after he made his statement.

Lying to Parliament is a serious offence, and one Ministers in particular should be held accountable for. But as I noted before, its what happens when you have government-by-spin: casual lies to avoid a temporary bad headline.

Unfortunately Smith will almost certainly escape accountability. Standing Orders require that Privilege complaints be laid at the earliest opportunity, which usually means that sitting day. Which means that if you have to wait for the evidence to emerge through the OIA process, the Minister can lie with impunity.