KEY POINTS:
The Prime Minister's office has been drawn into the row over the sacking of Environment Ministry communications manager Madeleine Setchell after suggestions that it warned David Benson-Pope's office not to intervene over the appointment.
News of the warning also points to there being misleading information in the State Services Commission report on the matter.
National Party leader John Key says this is a serious development that he will be pursuing this week.
"It is an indication that the Prime Minister's office recognises that not only is this a serious issue but that David Benson-Pope's office is completely out of line."
Prime Minister Helen Clark returned on Saturday from a visit to Malaysia and Indonesia.
She would not give interviews yesterday but is expected to distance herself today from the political interference and to condemn it.
Friday's State Services Commission report claims that a phone call from Mr Benson-Pope's office to the Ministry for the Environment after Ms Setchell's appointment was simply to seek answers to questions about whether she was the partner of Mr Key's press secretary, Kevin Taylor, which she is.
That view was backed on Friday by the author of the report, Deputy State Services Commissioner Iain Rennie, who said: "[The call] was seeking information. There is nothing inappropriate about a phone call seeking information."
The call was placed by Mr Benson-Pope's political adviser, Steve Hurring.
But a report in Saturday's Dominion Post said the Prime Minister's office advised him not to make the call, suggesting that Mr Hurring or Mr Benson-Pope had taken concerns about the appointment to a higher level.
An inference can be taken that the intention of the call was not to seek information but to convey it and, almost certainly, a concern about it.
Since the public sector reforms of the late 1980s, a strict line has been drawn against political interference in ministries or departments.
That is reinforced in the Cabinet Manual as well, which states under the subheading "Ministers' Relationships with Their Departments" that "ministers should bear in mind that they have the capacity to exercise considerable influence. They should take care to ensure that their intentions are not misunderstood, and that they do not inappropriately influence officials, or involve themselves in matters that are not their responsibility".
Mr Rennie's report was based on what the chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment, Hugh Logan, had told him.
Mr Logan had not learned of Ms Setchell's relationship until after her appointment, although she declared it early in her application.
Mr Rennie said Mr Logan had discussed the matter with Mr Benson-Pope but had taken the decision on Ms Setchell's employment independently.
He removed her from the communications post - after just three days in the job - and offered her another job, which she turned down. She was then paid out in a confidential settlement.
Mr Key said everybody knew that Mr Benson-Pope's office did not make a call to the ministry "for the good of their health".
"They did it to send a message and that message was very clear."
If Mr Benson-Pope's actions were condoned, "that sets an extremely dangerous precedent for the New Zealand public sector and its neutrality".
Mr Key said the Prime Minister had no option but to act in the best interests of the public service and the country "and cut her personal allegiance to David Benson-Pope, a minister who has a track record of misleading the public".
