MPs demand golden handshake details

Opposition parties want the settlement paid to departing Families Commission chief executive Claire Austin to be disclosed.

She left on Monday after only five months in the job. Chief commissioner Rajen Prasad said the board's expectations and hers around "governance and operational models" had not lined up.

"It's really important that these things do line up ... and despite best efforts on this occasion they didn't."

He would not expand on the disagreement.

Act leader Rodney Hide said her departure after just five months showed Labour's "$9 million a year sop to United Future" was off the rails and in big trouble.

United Future made the commission's formation a part of its deal to support Labour after the 2002 election.

Dr Prasad refused to disclose the settlement given to Ms Austin. Any payment would have to be declared in the annual report to be tabled in Parliament later this year.

Ms Austin, formally chief executive of the Royal College of General Practitioners, declined to comment.

A statement from the commission said it wished to acknowledge that she had valuable skills and experience, and a considerable track record, and it "wished her well for the future".

A spokesman for Social Development Minister Steve Maharey said arrangements for her departure were confidential.

Asked what her payment was, the spokesman would only say the commission was well aware of the Government's expectations around settlements for departing chief executives. "We are confident the settlement was in line with that."

Mr Hide said it was not good enough for Dr Prasad to refuse to disclose the payout, or to just cite governance and operational issues.

National families spokeswoman Judith Collins also called for the payout to be disclosed and said that to say it was secret and confidential was hypocritical.

"Helen Clark and her senior people called all through 1999 for an end to secret payouts to public servants, and here we have a secret payout to a public servant who's been in the job five months."

Ms Collins suspected Ms Austin left after disagreements over the spending of $670,000 on advertising a campaign on "what makes families tick". Dr Prasad rejected the claim.

Ms Collins said $670,000 was a lot to spend "telling people that if they go on to a website or ring up someone they can get a survey form".

"She's a public servant and I can't imagine she likes the fact that the commission has done nothing except employ some researchers and an awful lot of communications staff."

About $360,000 will be spent on a television campaign, more than $155,000 on radio, and $125,000 on print advertising. A further $30,000 is for other promotional material and the launch of the campaign.

"Such extravagant spending in an election year must be regarded as nothing more than Labour Party electioneering."

Mr Maharey said Ms Collins should produce the evidence to support her claims of electioneering or stop making such "ridiculous allegations". He invited her to give any evidence she had to the Auditor-General.

United Future deputy leader Judy Turner said the departure was an internal matter she had heard about only through the media.