Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford must resign for using her personal Gmail account to handle sensitive government business...think pre-Budget announcements, visa changes, and chats with conservative think-tank mates. This isn’t just a whoopsie; it’s a screaming neon sign flashing “hack me” to every cyber-criminal from Beijing to Moscow. And National’s excuse? Brace yourselves: printer issues and email error messages. Are we in 2025 or 1995?
Stanford’s private Gmail account, hosted on servers in the United States, is about as secure as a paper bag in a rainstorm. Unlike government systems, personal email accounts are prime targets for hackers....remember the DNC hack in 2016, where sensitive emails were splashed across the internet? Stanford’s been emailing herself Budget details and visa policy drafts, potentially exposing taxpayer-funded plans to foreign actors or corporate spies. The Cabinet Manual, updated in 2023, explicitly warns ministers against this, stating personal emails should be avoided for ministerial work. Yet, Stanford’s been at it for over a year, flouting rules meant to protect New Zealand’s security.
Today, 1 News reported:
Parliament's server repeatedly identifies her as a "suspect sender" in the subject line of emails as a result of security filtering.
Her use of personal email appears to be a potential breach of the Cabinet manual that all ministers are obliged to follow, and opens the door to a risk of confidential government information getting into the wrong hands.
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Emails show that the day before, at just after 10am, Stanford forwarded to her personal email all the documents for the announcement, including the draft press release, the draft fact sheet, speaking notes - some of which have been redacted - and a note from her private secretary team.
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Dr Michael Johnston was named the chair and is a senior fellow at the New Zealand iInitiative, a conservative think tank.
Emails between Stanford and Johnston, revealed in a separate OIA request in released in May 2024, show repeated communication with him - directly emailing Stanford's personal email on three occasions discussing Ministry of Education business.
National’s defence is laughably thin. They claim Stanford needed to forward sensitive documents to her Gmail to print them because her electorate office printer wasn’t hooked up to the Parliamentary server until last month. Printer issues? Really? In an era where Parliament’s tech lets you print from anywhere, this smells like a flimsy cover story. And email error messages? If Stanford’s team couldn’t sort basic IT glitches, how are they handling multi-million-dollar portfolios? This isn’t just incompetence; it’s a national security risk that must ensure Erica Standford’s resignation.
Now, cast your mind back to 2018. National hounded Labour’s Clare Curran, demanding her resignation for using a Gmail account for minor government business. No classified info, no Budget leaks...just a meeting arranged via personal email. National and their attack bloggers screamed about transparency and record-keeping, painting Curran as a reckless loose cannon. Their unwarranted attacks went on for months. Fast forward to 2025, and our weak Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is apparently “super relaxed” about Stanford’s far graver breach. Hundreds of emails, sensitive documents, potential OIA dodging and crony deals…yet National shrugs. The hypocrisy here is astounding!
And then there’s Stanford’s cosy chats with Dr Michael Johnston of the New Zealand Initiative, a conservative think tank. Emails show her discussing replacing tertiary academics and hand-picking reviewers to steer curriculum changes…without due process. Why? To get the results National wants, of course. This isn’t governance; it’s a stitch-up, bypassing expertise for ideology. Stanford’s not just risking our security; she’s undermining our education system’s integrity.
New Zealand deserves far better. Stanford’s Gmail security breach and National’s pathetic excuses expose a government that’s cavalier with our safety and selective with its outrage. If printer problems and email errors are enough to justify this mess, what’s next? Faxing Budget secrets because the Wi-Fi’s down? Time for Stanford to face the music…no excuses, no double standards. Erica Stanford must resign.
