Non-Nat directors targeted – Goff

Labour leader Phil Goff is accusing the Government of carrying out a "witch-hunt" against State-Owned Enterprises board members who are not National Party supporters.

Several Labour government state board directors are not being reappointed when their terms expire.

The Dominion Post reported today that State-Owned Enterprises Minister Simon Power had written to "a number" of directors telling them their services would not be required when their terms ended on April 30.

All had been appointed since Labour came to power in 1999.

The Crown Company Monitoring and Advisory Unit of Treasury had interviewed the directors and recommended they resign, a Labour Party source told the newspaper.

"They are being told their faces don't fit."

Directors in the gun were understood by the newspaper to include Meridian Energy director Polly Schaverien and former Labour staffer Tony Timms from Quotable Value.

ACC Minister Nick Smith stripped former union boss Ross Wilson of his chairman's role at ACC but he remained on the board . He is also a director of KiwiRail.

The Government is expected to give former deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen a chair of a state owned enterprise.

Mr Goff said the moves were a "witch-hunt" against board members simply because they were not National party supporters.

- NZPA