KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark says Treasury has let the country down by releasing a document showing how much the Reserve Bank can risk when it intervenes in the currency market.
Yesterday a Sunday newspaper reported that it was provided top secret figures under the Official Information Act relating to the Reserve Bank's intervention in the New Zealand dollar but did not publish them out of public interest concerns.
National has seized on the mistake, saying Finance Minister Michael Cullen's office made a "monumental blunder" when it released the documents prepared by Treasury.
Speaking on Newstalk ZB this morning, Helen Clark put the blame squarely with Treasury. Earlier on Radio New Zealand Treasury Secretary John Whitehead admitted his department was at fault.
The PM said there were hard questions to be answered.
"That came across from the Treasury saying every 'i' had been dotted and every 't' crossed and it was ready for release," she said.
"Now there's got to be some pretty hard questions asked down at Treasury about that."
She said she did not know the figure; "that's how closely held it was".
"I do want some answers as to why something ends up on the Minister of Finance's desk with the Treasury saying this has all been cleared by us and the Reserve Bank for release, and clearly that matter should not have been released."
The Prime Minister said her Government would not be sidetracked by the case.
"I don't intend to be distracted by the odd person letting the Government, me and frankly New Zealand down. And that's what happens when you have a matter like that handled by the Treasury which is full of high paid people who should be able to do better."
Mr Whitehead said Treasury had robust processes for OIA requests but something had gone wrong.
The document was released on July 25. The information related to the previous policy of intervention and not the current one.
"Still commercially sensitive but it would have been much worse if it had been the other. They are old figures."
Mr Whitehead said "it looked pretty clear this was human error".
The document released was the one without the key material deleted rather than the version that was approved for release.
"I've initiated an investigation to find out precisely what happened."
The investigation would be internal but Mr Whitehead said it would be open.
"The basic philosophy I follow is we own, we fix it and we learn from it."
The results will be released publicly with a final report expected within a week.
National Party leader John Key said Dr Cullen's office should not be let off the hook.
"I don't think they can quite so glibly ... say Michael Cullen's office has no responsibility," Mr Key told Radio New Zealand.
"At the end of the day he actually signed the letter -- as I understand it the letter made it quite clear that two numbers had been withheld because they were commercially sensitive."
Mr Key said if there were no checks "he (Dr Cullen) is just the monkey signing the letter frankly".
"It's quite interesting isn't it when there's a problem the bureaucrats are put up to defend it.
"When it's anywhere near good news the ministers are out there waving the flag."
Mr Key said the release was "potentially the most commercially sensitive information that the Reserve Bank has".
He doubted the data had changed that much and if released would have neutered any intervention programme.
"(Dr Cullen) won't be the only person who looks at it. Somebody else in his office will also check it and if they don't that's a fault in the system isn't it?"
The case ended a "nightmare week" for Labour, Mr Key said.
- NZPA
