Full Disclosure

An Open Letter

Dear Sirs:

We have been treated to high profile exposure on the part of the papers you edit, The Herald and The Dominion Post to Mz Rankin's marital career. The focus of national daily newspapers into such matters can only be due to your professional and considered opinion that canvassing such matters is "in the public interest."

You may well be right--and it would be charitable to extend to you the benefit of the doubt. There may well be something odd about a recently appointed Commissioner for Families being married four times. Hardly conducive to stable family life, one would have thought.

But this begs the question. Since you deem the reporting on such matters to be in the public interest, the marital careers of the other Family Commissioners must likewise be of similar public interest. We note that the Families Commission website provides the following profiles on the current Commissioners:

Current commissioners

Jan Pryor (Chief Commissioner)

Dr Pryor is the Director at the Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families at Victoria University and a Family Psychology professor. Prior to that she was a specialist report writer for the Family Court in Auckland for 10 years. She has an extensive background in family research, and has had numerous papers and books published.

Sharron Cole (Deputy Chief Commissioner)

Ms Cole has a long history of community service and participation. Her strengths include advocacy, practical bioethics and close involvement with families.

Sandra Alofivae

Ms Alofivae is a senior family law practitioner in Auckland. She has worked closely with Pacific families and has been actively involved in the community and voluntary sector. Sandra is of Samoan descent.

Lyn Campbell

Ms Campbell has broad experience in community development with a focus on advocacy for families. She has worked extensively in senior management in education and local government.

Gregory Fortuin

Mr Fortuin has a wide breadth of community experience in the public and private sectors. Previous roles have included: Race Relations Conciliator for New Zealand, Director of New Zealand Post Ltd, Founding Director Kiwibank, and Chair of the Youth Suicide Awareness Trust.

David Smyth

Mr Smyth was a Deputy Commissioner in the State Services Commission. He has broad experience in governance and management in the state service and in social policy development in the health, housing and justice sectors.

Kim Workman

Mr Workman has had extensive involvement with the Prison Fellowship New Zealand, from which he retired as director in June 2008. He has previously held positions with Kim Workman and Associates Ltd, Ministry of Health, Departments of Justice and Maori Affairs, State Services Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, and New Zealand Police.

Now that you have raised the issue, we would like to know how every Family Commissioner stacks up on this particular standard. Would you please research and publish a marital history of the existing commissioners, so that we can make an assessment about their respective fitness for the Commission.

Moveover, the publication of such personal material will help assure us that you have acted in this matter with integrity, and that you believe truthfully that the discussion and presentation of Mz Rankin's marital career in the pages of your respective newspapers was indeed in the public interest in your respective professional opinions.

In addition, this will help convince us that your high profile expose on Mz Rankin's personal marital career was not a descent into gutter journalism nor the subborning of your newspapers into becoming organs for trafficking in titillation and gossip.