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• Senior  minister Erica Stanford forwarded official briefings to her personal email, against Cabinet Manual advice.
• Prime Minister  said changes were made to ensure better management by Stanford.
•  leader  criticised Stanford, stating there was “absolutely no justification” for her actions.

National minister Erica Stanford, who is under fire for sending Government business, including briefings, to her personal email account, admits her processes were “untidy”.

Stanford says she has made changes to improve what she called an “untidy” approach to managing the work-related emails to her personal account.

“You’re right, it’s untidy, it’s not best practice and I’ve taken steps to fix that,” the senior minister, whose portfolios include education and immigration, told reporters at Parliament this morning.

“I get eight thousand pieces of correspondence through to multiple emails, mostly work emails. You know, the job is extraordinarily demanding, but in saying that, I acknowledge it has not been tidy so I’ve taken steps to fix it.”

Stanford says she has set up an automatic reply on her personal email account in an effort to direct unsolicited work-related emails to her ministerial email address.

Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell

She also recently had the printer in her East Coast Bays electorate office connected to the parliamentary network so she can print those Government documents without having to send them to a personal account.

“If anything (else) comes up, we will continue to change our practices.”

The Cabinet Manual – a rulebook for Government ministers – says ministers should not use their personal emails or phones to conduct ministerial business.

If that is unavoidable, the Cabinet Manual stipulates a series of safeguards that ministers should follow, including ensuring the information is protected from unauthorised access and able to be swiftly accessed for Official Information Act (OIA) requests.

National minister Chris Bishop. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Senior National minister Chris Bishop said he too had “occasionally” forwarded emails from his Parliament address to his Gmail, usually for printing purposes.

He could not recall what was in those documents but said it was not ministerial business.

“As a habit I don’t forward ministerial documents or work to my Gmail,” Bishop said.

“MPs are on the road a lot, there are printing problems, often. I can’t print at my Parliament office, for example. Erica [Stanford] hasn’t been able to.”

Asked why he could not get his printer working, Bishop said “tell me about it ... I share your pain. It’s crazy ... It’s a nightmare.”

At Monday’s post-Cabinet press conference, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said he was “super relaxed” about the issue. His office had spoken to Stanford’s, he said.

“I am very relaxed about it. The reality is ... she has received unsolicited emails, she has had printing issues, she’s had tech issues. She has made changes subsequently.”

But Labour leader Chris Hipkins – the author of the section of the 2023 Cabinet Manual update that covers personal email and phone use – said technology at Parliament had improved dramatically in recent years and there was “absolutely no justification” for Stanford’s actions.

“The technology in Parliament has improved dramatically in the last few years. There is no longer a need to use personal email accounts, for example, to print documents. The technology is now all fully mobile.”

Julia Gabel is a Wellington-based political reporter. She joined the Herald in 2020 and has most recently focused on data journalism.