Two Ministry of Justice employees have come under fire for describing academic researcher Barbara Sumner as a “bitch” in an online conversation.
Sumner, conducting PhD research into adoption systems, made several Official Information Act (OIA) requests and later requested all correspondence mentioning her by name, feeling a resistance in the responses.
In a Teams conversation, the staffers complained about Sumner’s requests, calling them a “waste of time” and criticising the ministry’s handling of them. Sumner told state media she found the remarks deeply disturbing and stressed the importance of accessing information for her research. The ministry apologized for the inappropriate language, citing a breach of their Code of Conduct and values, and stated that appropriate action was taken against the employees involved.
Despite the apology, Sumner felt the ministry’s response was insufficient and lacked transparency about the actions taken against the staff.
The Ministry of Justice declined to provide specific details about the disciplinary measures or whether other staff were aware of the incident at the time.
Maybe she genuinely just was…you know… being… a bit of a b**** 🤷♂️
Why would the ministry staffers just call her that out of the blue?
Might make another rich area of potential PHD study for her…
I’d say any information gained from govt probably is, in most cases, a waste of time. Their information management is not great and stats often omit, important information.
In this context the term bitch is a word that describes a woman who is considered to be unpleasant or unkind. If words mean what they describe, then I can’t see a problem.
For example many would describe Ardern as a bitch for what she did to the country.
Other ways to use the word.
I had a bitch of a day.
My dog is a bitch.
He was bitching about what was happening.
Life is a bitch then you die.
It is common language. It has meaning.