Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 05 June 2013. Volume:690;Page:10715. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]1.DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) to thePrime Minister: Does he have confidence in all his Ministers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.David Shearer: Does he have confidence in himself given that on 26 March in this House he said that privacy breaches were inevitable and a result of human error with regard to our Government agencies yet the Government Chief Information Officer’s review that he received in December last year showed there was systemic failure?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: To quote the Deputy Prime Minister: “He’s never been short of that.”—“he” being me of course.David Shearer: I do not think I got an answer. Why—[Interruption]Mr SPEAKER: Order! Supplementary question David Shearer.David Shearer: Why when he had already received a report into privacy breaches and had a Cabinet discussion on the report did he continue to mislead the public that there were no systemic failures of Government information systems?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I did not. If the member is talking about the Government Chief Information Officer’s report that has been released it looked at public-interfacing systems of which there were 215 across 70 agencies in which there were 12 breaches. What that also showed was that that is quite a different issue actually from someone making a simple human error and mistake like sending an email with the wrong address.David Shearer: Does the report into privacy breaches show that 87 percent of public sector agencies have no formal security certification and accreditation processes and 73 percent have no formal security policy; if so does he not think that is a little beyond human error and actually amounts to systemic failure right across our Government?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well the member is confusing two different issues. One is public-facing—[Interruption] Well he can choose to if he wants to but one is public-facing issues and the second is whether someone sends an email by mistake. In the case of the point I was referring to which the member quotes from it was where someoneused an email address and sent to the wrong address. That is human error. What the Government Chief Information Officer’s report today shows is that yes there is room for improvement and yes the system is being improved and our Government will be the first Government that actually has a chief technology officer who will have wide-ranging powers as a result of the changes we have made and a number of other systems improvements that we have enhanced in the last 6 months.David Shearer: Does he now consider in light of the Government Chief Information Officer’s report that there were systemic failures across our Government in regard to information systems?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No I do not think there is systemic failure. I think what there is in those public-interfacing systems is room for improvement and as I said that is why the Government has been developing an information and communications technology assurance framework that is why the Government is upgrading the powers of the Government Chief Information Officer and that is why the Government commissioned the work that has been going on. It is inevitable actually as we move into the digital age—I know the Labour Party is in the dark ages but the Government is actually moving into the digital age—that these errors will occur.David Shearer: Why should the public trust him to implement the recommendations of the Government Chief Information Officer’s report when he actually denies that there is any systemic failure?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The member is confusing two completely different issues. If the member wants to do that then he is going to carry on talking the way he talks under his invisible cloak.David Shearer: When his Minister Peter Dunne was questioned four times by David Henry as part of the Kitteridge report leaking inquiry something that no other Minister underwent was that questioning under oath?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I do not have details about the inquiry because the inquiry is ongoing. But to the best of my knowledge no information was not taken under oath.David Shearer: Given that the witnesses questioned as part of the inquiry into the leaking at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were questioned under oath does he not consider it is a double standard not to question those suspects in the Kitteridge inquiry under oath?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No.David Shearer: Given his statement to TV3 that he was sceptical about finding the leaker does he really want to find the perpetrator; if so would he not therefore insist on those people being questioned being questioned under oath?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: To the best of my knowledge over the course of many Governments there have been inquiries. Very few of them are taken under oath. Some are. Very few of them are. If the member is saying that they have to be taken under oath is he then saying that the inquiries that were held under the previous Labour Government that were not undertaken under oath were therefore just made up?