No defence for deceit

OPINION: We've been flat-out lied to, writes The Southland Times in an editorial.

We understand that politicians and bureaucracies will put a spin on events to present themselves and their agendas in the best light. They may also prevaricate, when it suits them. Journalists and analysts have the job of rebalancing, as best they can, for reality's sake.

Living with this sometimes shabby dynamic is not the same thing as tolerating plain, emphatically presented falsehoods, such as The Southland Times was fed in responses from Southland District Mayor Frana Cardno, the district council's chief executive Dave Adamson and Gore District Council chief executive Steve Parry when we spoke to them on Tuesday for yesterday's story on a conflict among councils over regional civil defence job applicants.

The story was that the district councils were seeking to bring in an Ashburton-based consultant in favour of the incumbent, Neil Cruickshank, who had the support of Environment Southland and the Invercargill City Council.

This was met by three straight-up-and-down denials that there was any conflict at all. No, no, the process of choosing a regional civil defence officer was being worked through, they would have us know, without division. Except perhaps for the implication, from some of them, that the Environment Southland chief executive Ciaran Keogh was something of a loose cannon and we should ignore him.

Well, no. This is not a matter of differing perspectives or of how daintily one may define division. What we have here is an honest account, and dishonest denials.

Unfortunately for the soothing gainsayers, we were in possession of emails explaining, in some detail, the very clear divisions that were being denied.

These emails had the previous day been copied to those we spoke to. They show Mr Adamson referring to "a myriad of concerned calls" about the appointment, and reacting to Environment Southland's decision to withdraw from the whole joint arrangement if Mr Cruickshank was not appointed. They also show Mr Keogh railing against a process that had become "nothing short of an incompetent waste of our time and the ratepayers' money and ... significantly disruptive to the good will of our staff".

None of which, apparently, was sufficient to prevent Mr Adamson, Mrs Cardno or Mr Parry from denying divisions. What is more, after we made them aware of an upcoming meeting between Environment Southland and city council representatives yesterday, both Mrs Cardno and Gore Mayor Tracy Hicks (who was not directly copied on the emails but must have been aware of their content), phoned Invercargill Mayor Tim Shadbolt to lobby the city on behalf of their position.

We learned this, by the way, from Environment Southland chairman Stuart Collie, not from Mr Shadbolt, who isn't talking to The Southland Times, other than the very occasional press release. He continues to sulk over the reporting associated with his failed attempt to role his deputy, Neil Boniface. Unhelpful – but at least that's better than telling deliberate falsehoods.

The specifics of the civil defence story, while not themselves insignificant by any means, matter less than the principle of the thing. It's as simple as deciding, after allowing for the normal tolerances for political wriggle-room, whether we can rely on the honesty and integrity of our local body politicians – not to confess all, necessarily, because that's unrealistic, but at least not to deceive.

In our view, that shows a lack of integrity. It will change the relationship between this newspaper and those local bodies in the future.

- © Fairfax NZ News

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