Angry Government to launch Telecom leak inquiry

The Government is furious its Telecom Budget centrepiece was leaked within hours of being signed off by a top-level Cabinet committee and will launch an inquiry to find the culprit.

The broadband decision had been in the planning for some time but was only cemented by the policy committee, chaired by the Prime Minister and attended by 10 other ministers and a handful of officials, late yesterday morning. Just hours later Communications Minister David Cunliffe was called by Telecom and told it had the Cabinet paper.

Under pressure after last year's election Budget, which was panned, the Government was counting on the "good news" broadband story for a better reaction.

But after the Telecom call and rapid legal consultations, it decided it had no choice but to go public. Mr Cunliffe said Telecom's comments and his own legal advice was that Telecom "may need to make a comment to the Stock Exchange [as a publicly listed company]".

Mr Cunliffe downplayed the leak last night, preferring to concentrate on the "positive" detail in the announcement. Beehive sources said it was one of the worst leaks, if not the worst, experienced by the Government, particularly as the information had been circulated among so few people. They would include ministers and officials from the Prime Minister's Office and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet at the meeting, as well as select officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and Treasury.

Government insiders said an investigation was inevitable, with some tipping State Services Minister Annette King as likely to charge the State Services Commission with leading it.