The Ministry of Justice’s handling of Russell Harrison’s employment

The Ministry of Justice’s handling of Russell Harrison’s employment

The Ministry of Justice will strengthen its employment and management practices after recognising it made a number of mistakes in the employment of Russell Harrison, says Secretary for Justice Andrew Kibblewhite.

We have both received an independent legal review of our legal advice and undertaken our own stocktake of what happened. Whilst the independent review noted that it can be notoriously difficult to progress an employment matter where there is a related criminal prosecution, it is also clear we got some key things wrong.

Most significantly we missed the chance to terminate Mr Harrison's employment when we received his Police vetting report on the same day he was charged. We should have moved to terminate his employment at that point instead of suspending him.

We have also identified the need to implement more systematic oversight and monitoring for complex employment relations matters, and greater specialist advisory support for managers.

As a public agency we must follow the law and respect the rights of employees, but we must also carefully manage how we spend appropriated money – in this case we got the balance wrong and I apologise for that.

I'm committed to ensuring we make the changes required to improve our systems and work.