P.M. blames 'lack of integrity’

Press, 25 August 1980, Page 2

P.M. blames 'lack of integrity’

PA" - Wellington A lack of integrity by j people in both the public; and private sectors is behind the leaking of sensitive information, according to the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). “Material has come out of Parliament Buildings. I regard that as very bad,” Mr Muldoon said in an inter-' view.. I

Elaborating on a speech he made to the Institute of Chartered Secretaries in Auckland. Mr Muldoon noted that while there was no problem. in . his office, material had been made public by people who should have a duty of confidentiality. The problem, he said was a lack of. integrity these days which was “not common” in the past. Asked if the leaking of sensitive material could be because of people being asked to keep secret things that they believed the public should be told. Mr Muldoon replied, “No, I don’t think so.”

It was simply a lack of integrity. . . That kind, of occupation required confidentiality as a matter of pride, he said.

Of the controversy over the release of names of Socialist Action League members'said to have infiltrated the Labour Party, Mr Muldoon said he had not asked the director of the Security Intelligence Service (Mr P. Molineaux) to release them. ~ „ ■/ Mr Muldoon told Parliament on Friday that he would be quite happy to release the names, with the concurrence of the Leader of the Opposition < (Mr Rowling). However, Mr Muldoon said in the interview that Mr Rowling’s reaction to the suggestion had been “rather obscure.” . “He goes to ground every time something comes up on the S.A.L.” The reason for this was that, there were three or four different stories within the - Labour Party and thorough embarrassment because most of them did not know what was going on, Mr Muldoon said. He was “pretty sure’ that the party did not know the extent of: infiltration of. S.A.L. members’ but the league itself had confirmed oublicly that it was part of its policy to join the Labour Party. Asked if he knew all the names, Mr Muldoon said he knew some of them. “If the Opposition had no objection I’d be quite - .Happy to make them public.” Asked if' it was the Labour Party’s responsibility to “weed out” unwanted) people, as Mr Rowling has suggested, Mr Muldoon said, “Of course it is.” However, he did not think it made any sense for the S.I.S. to gain a lot of information about subversive organisations and then to store it in pigeonholes.