Phil Goff's chief of staff chooses South Sudan over Auckland city
Fran Mold departs from Auckland mayor's senior leadership team.
Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s chief of staff has left to go to work for former Labour MP David Shearer in war-torn South Sudan.
Fran Mold used to be Mr Shearer’s chief spin doctor before joining the ranks of the mayor’s senior office staff last year.
She leaves for her new role as senior public information officer for the United Nations Mission in South Sudan in two weeks.
Mr Shearer forced a by-election in the Mt Albert electorate after taking up the role of heading the UN’s peacekeeping efforts in the war-torn region.
The mayor’s press secretary, Nirupa George, is acting chief of staff until a new appointee, who won’t be named until next week, takes up the reins in June.
Mr Goff has revealed that four staff in his office are being paid more than $150,000, with one who he wouldn’t name paid up to $295,000.
Ms Mold was at the centre of a controversy five years ago with claims that the former TVNZ political reporter’s partner, an ex-GCSB employee, was the source of Mr Shearer’s allegations about the Government Communications Security Bureau.
In 2012 Mr Shearer, then Labour leader, claimed there was a recording of John Key addressing GCSB staff in the bureau’s cafeteria in which the prime minister made a joke about Kim Dotcom. But Mr Key said he hadn't heard of any GCSB investigation of Kim Dotcom at the time of his visit to the bureau.
Staff Reporter
Fri, 31 Mar 2017
Fri, 31 Mar 2017
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Phil Goff's chief of staff chooses South Sudan over Auckland city
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