The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal, through
an Official Information Act response that over eleven
months the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
(DPMC) recorded 24 instances of staff attempting to access
adult entertainment websites on government
devices.
The response confirms the incidents occurred
across multiple months in 2024, with a particularly high
concentration in May (5), June (4), and July (7) —
suggesting a consistent pattern of misuse rather than
one-off mistakes.
Taxpayers’ Union Investigations
Coordinator, Rhys Hurley said:
“Taxpayers expect
their public servants to be focused on the job, not trying
to access porn at work. If the Department supporting the
Prime Minister can’t even keep its staff off x-rated
sites, what hope is there for the rest of the
bureaucracy?”
“This isn’t a case of a single
slip-up. The pattern here is showing that for months on end,
some staff in our most high-profile government agencies are
trying to access inappropriate content while on the
clock.”
“The Department says it’s
reminded staff about IT rules—but won’t say if
anyone was actually held accountable. Tellingly, they
wouldn’t even publish this OIA response on their
website.”
“This isn’t just about smut on work
time — it’s a symptom of a bloated public service with
too much time on its hands and too little accountability.
This year’s Budget must get staffing back to 2017 levels
and restore some discipline to the public
sector.”
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