Exclusive by 1News Political Editor Maiki Sherman and Political Producer Tom Day.
Education and Immigration Minister Erica Stanford sent pre-Budget announcements to her personal email prior to them being publicly announced last year, 1News can reveal.
The revelation is just one of tens of examples of Stanford using her personal email for ministerial business over the course of her time as a minister.
The emails, which were released following an Official Information Act (OIA) request, show Stanford putting her MP business signature on her personal email while communicating with her staff, school principals and various organisations.
Education and Immigration minister has put her MP business signature on personal emails to staff, school principals and various organisations. (Source: 1News)
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.
Gmail does not offer end-to-end encryption on personal emails, though they are encrypted in-transit, and section 2.86 of the Cabinet manual says: “As far as possible, Ministers should not use their personal email account or phone number to conduct ministerial business.”
The manual says the minister’s office and officials should also have “ready access” to relevant information. However, it also says that where the use is unavoidable, information must be “protected from unauthorised access, use, and disclosure and that classified and personal information is handled appropriately”.
‘More easily hacked’
Otago University professor and legal expert Andrew Geddis said the Cabinet manual is clear.
He added: “Putting that sort of information out onto an external email source raises security questions because we all know that email is hackable, and outside of government accounts are more easily hacked than government ones are.”
Budget information is particularly sensitive, he said. “So it’s the minister’s responsibility to make sure the information they’re sending out of the government system is properly protected and that there isn’t this risk of it being disclosed before it really should be.”
Stanford responded to questions from 1News this afternoon, saying: “My personal email was publicly available when I was in opposition. As a result, I’ve occasionally received unsolicited emails from the public or stakeholders since becoming a minister. I have also received emails from contacts with whom I’ve had an established relationship.
“Where necessary, I have forwarded these emails to my ministerial email or ministerial staff to be actioned or be included in official information. Many emails to my personal email have previously been considered in scope of official information act requests and released to requestors.”
She said she sometimes forwards emails to herself so she can print briefings while working away from Parliament, but that Parliamentary Service has now installed her electorate office printer on the Parliamentary network.
Stanford added: “I’ve set up an automatic reply for my personal email address to direct unsolicited emails to relevant Parliament email addresses.”
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said this afternoon he was “very relaxed” about the situation and that Stanford had got IT support to fix issues like printing problems.
Details of information on Stanford’s personal email:
Budget
On May 26 last year, Stanford appeared on TVNZ’s Q+A programme to announce the government’s plans to recruit 1500 teachers over the next four years, with the policy costing $53 million dollars.
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.
Visa changes
A month earlier, on April 7, Stanford announced major changes to the accredited employer work visa scheme, which included the requirements for a minimum English language requirement for ANZSCO level 4 and 5 roles.
She forwarded details of the announcement to her personal email at close to 9am, before the announcement was made just after midday.
However, it wasn’t just those immediate changes that were in the email that was forwarded. In bold at the bottom of the message, it says “Changes NOT being announced 7 April”, saying that a “restriction on visas for partners and dependent children for ANZSCO 4 and 5 visa holders” would come into effect in mid-2024.
That announcement would be made public months later on June 26 by Immigration New Zealand.
Ministerial Advisory Group
On December 13, 2023, as part of the government’s 100 day plan, Stanford revealed that she was setting up a new ministerial advisory group to review the primary school curricula for English, maths and science.
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.
On December 20, 2023, Johnston sent an evening email to Stanford on the “science of learning”.
On January 24, Johnston emailed Stanford’s personal email saying he has “additional thoughts about the learning objectives document.” Johnston goes on to critique work of the Ministry of Education and adds: “Teachers are not necessarily experts in the subjects they are teaching – often for example physics may be taught by a maths teacher or a PE teacher.”
Two days prior, Johnston also sent to Stanford’s personal email a version of the science learning outcomes.
Schools
Stanford also uses her personal email to communicate with multiple schools and their principals.
On May 24 2024, one principal emails Stanford’s personal email pleading for more voices and perspectives in the ministerial advisory group. Stanford emails back saying the principal may be “pleasantly surprised at the curriculum work” and that she listens to a range of views but “isn’t interested in retaining what we have”. The principal emailed back saying she appreciated the reply.
On May 26, 2024, Stanford received a personal email suggesting that she look into our poor international rankings for student behaviour and make a suggestion that she contact a UK-based training programme to see if they could do a review.
Stanford replied back two minutes later, copying in her officials. She wrote: “Thank you we need to do some work in this area so I’ll check him out. Aware we still need to catch up re science curriculum. Once Budget madness is over I’ll get a time to zoom.”
On June 21, 2024, Stanford received an invite via her personal email to attend a block opening at a school. A day later, Stanford emailed the individual back on the same address saying she would love to attend and that she was “asking for leave from Wellington to make it”.
On February 7 this year, Stanford made an educational visit.
A day later, she received an email to her personal email saying they were sorry they didn’t catch up with her, but says it was “probably just as well, once I realised how extensive my concerns about the science curriculum rewrite were”.
Stanford emailed her back from her personal email later that night, saying: “These curriculum take a while to get right, we go through many versions so pls don’t lose faith!” She says she’ll forward on the feedback to her officials.
Staff
Stanford frequently forwards emails back and forth from her personal and her work address.
As recently as March 2 this year she directed officials from her personal account.
At 1.48pm that day she asked a staffer: “Can we pls check if an email came in on 20 Feb from parl IST about restricted apps on our phones.”
On April 29, 2024 she sent a personal email of a post-Cabinet speech to a parliamentary address over 12 hours before it is due to be public, saying that it “Needs tweaking”.
