ACC vs Pullar

We had to go to a meeting last night, so we set MySky to record the Sunday interview with Bronwyn Pullar. Epic fail; the story was, of course, aired on TV3's 60 Minutes.

But when we got home, we found this story:

Opinion by Melanie Reid

Since early on in the ACC privacy scandal, the almost constant refrain from those defending the corporation has been the same.

Why didn’t Bronwyn Pullar just give the file back?

Does that just sound like a typical attack the messenger tactic?

But since it’s been bandied about so much, of course I asked Ms Pullar when I interviewed her for the 60 Minutes story “In the Eye of the Storm”.

The answer raises another important question that seems to have been glossed over.

To understand things, you need to know the sequence of events and a bit of context.

Ms Pullar had been in a nine-year battle with ACC about a variety of issues to do with her claim. But during that, she had become horrified about the corporation’s handling of privacy.

In the midst of complaining about what she said was a breach of her own privacy, she received an email from a senior ACC manager in August last year.

Attached to the email was a copy of a file. Initially, it didn’t mean anything to Ms Pullar at all and she set it aside.

It wasn’t until much later – on the eve of the now infamous December meeting – that she realised the file was embedded with spreadsheets of data. That data included private information on the ACC claims of almost 7000 people.

Since the December meeting between Ms Pullar, her support person Michelle Boag and two ACC senior managers had already been arranged, she decided to tell ACC about the mass privacy breach there.

And, as you heard on the recording played on our programme, that’s exactly what happened.

Now of course, this is where it all got murky. ACC accused Ms Pullar of trying to extort a benefit out of ACC. Ms Pullar hotly denies having done that, and the Police declared last week that no offence had been committed.

Bronwyn Pullar will be glad that she recorded her dealings with ACC. And on the face of it, ACC appears to have behaved with a significant amount of malice towards Bronwyn Pullar.

When we get a moment today we will watch the 60 Minutes piece online. But in the meantime, we'd be interested to know what you thought if you saw the piece. And even if you didn't, do as we have done and read Melanie Reid's backgrounder.

This story is going to continue to percolate for some time yet. And we don't think that ACC is going to come out of this smelling of roses. Has the time come for a wide-ranging inquiry into the culture at ACC?

UPDATE: The 60 Minutes story is now online, but we won't have a moment to watch it until later in the morning...