They're laughing at us.

MBIE must hate it when Leighton Associates’ predictions prove to be correct:

Noticias (Brasil), 16 February 2022 CultureSafe NZ e o diretor Allan Halse multados em US$9.000 por violar o acordo de confidencialidade

Translation: CultureSafe NZ director Allan Halse fined $9,000 for breaching confidentiality agreement

See our article “A Public Spectacle in the Making” on this matter from a year earlier, and our most recent where it is now alleged that the fines could not have been awarded but for an alleged privacy breach by MBIE, which the Employment Relations Authority is a part of.

The Brazilian journalist, who could not have been expected to know a lot about New Zealand employment law, may not have realised that the “breach of confidentiality” was for disclosing the existence of a mediated settlement agreement, and the main “breach” was disparagement. But s/he did appear to realise that, standing back, the whole episode did not pass the “smell test”. Hence the article.

As embarrassing as that is, we found an even sillier one from The Guardian, 30 May 2017: this is how ruffled feathers get soothed in Switzerland:

And don’t get us started on Russia...