" A line should be drawn under the first 18 months of DWI's existence and a second stage of organisation design and development commenced.
" In this second stage it will be necessary to reshape professional attitudes, styles, values, understandings, relationships _ it is in these areas of the intangible that the Public Service department is differentiated from other types of organisation..."
— The Hunn Report

" Maharey gave Don Hunn the task of giving or witholding the organisation's "warrant of fitness". Mr Hunn has found the job less straightforward than that. Winz is safe on the road, he suggests, but it needs a substantial refit. The government owner must now get the repairs done and point the restyled "Department of Work and Income" in the right direction..."
— editorial in The Dominion 15 May 2000

" Vehicle OK, but the driver fails."
— headline on the Hunn Report, from the New Zealand Herald

" The fact that the Chief Executive and the majority of the senior managers were drawn from one of the partners, reinforced the dominance of the larger over the smaller. A significant proportion of those who participated in the process assert that it was not a merger but a takeover, so that there was no fusion of what were quite different styles and cultures but the preeminence of one at the expense of the other — a phenomenon which is often the accompaniment of attempted mergers. The result in the succeeding months was the departure of some key personnel and the loss of their institutional memory particularly on the employment side ..."
— The Hunn Report

" I would like to highlight the fact that the review team acknowledges in its report that they were very impressed with the quality of many of the staff around the country and their dedication to the success of the department's policies.
" I want to tell those staff that the Government will do our best to work to ensure that improvements are made to the structure of the department so that frontline staff can continue to get on with their jobs..."
— Trevor Mallard, State Services Minister

" Mr Hunn sketches out a way forward for the department as it adapts to the newly-elected Government's policies in welfare and employment. I am confident that Work and Income will recognise the points that Mr Hunn makes in the report ...
" I do not intend to take Mr Hunn's report as a review of the chief executive's performance. Indeed, to do so would be to miss the main point of the review, which is to prepare the biggest single department in the Public Service to implement the new Government's policies..."
— Michael Wintringham, State Services Commissioner,

" Based on its track record, the government will now ignore this report because it does not like what it says. It's no different to any other reports they have commissioned..."
— Roger Sowry, former National Minister of Social Welfare

" Anyone who has met Christine Rankin recognises that she is very positive about Winz and is determined to make it a successful organisation ... She should be left to get on with the job of making Winz an effective organisation that helps New Zealanders get into work and ensure they are paid the benefits they are entitled to."

— Belinda Vernon, National party spokesperson on Work and Income NZ

" Mr Maharey was outspokenly critical of Ms Rankin and her management style while in opposition. Upon becoming the Minister of Social Services and Employment, Parliamentary Questions revealed that he received high level legal advice, including from the Solicitor General, regarding the impact of those statements.
" Legal advisers warned Mr Maharey that his verbal attacks had already exposed the Government to the risk of a significant personal grievance claim by Ms Rankin. In reality, Mr Maharey's verbal bravado has compromised the Government's ability to act..."
— Dr Muriel Newman, Act NZ spokesperson on Work and Income NZ

" I am not surprised that Winz staff are calling for greater local flexibilty to meet the needs of job seekers, however the Greens hold serious doubts that Winz staff have the expertise required to handle employment placement and job creation. Obviously the department will need to recruit or train more people with the appropriate skills to empower people to look for jobs and not to punish them, as they have currently been trained to do...
" The Greens are very concerned that the report highlights the poor understanding of Winz for community employment development. The Community Employment Group has suffered the most as it is a small but essential part of job creation and community development and has been overwhelmed by the larger organisation."
— Sue Bradford, Green Social Services spokesperson

" NZ First welcomes a renewed emphasis on public service implicit in the name change sought for Winz, but urges the department not to get involved in another round of corporate "branding". It is a change of the organisation's culture that is required, not a cosmetic and potentially costly name change. It is in all of our interests that public confidence in this organisation is quickly restored ..."
— Ron Mark, NZ First Social Welfare spokesman.

" The Hunn review does not delve into the excesses of the corporate culture or Mrs Rankin's love-the-company style of management. But like a probation report on a delinquent child, it paints a rather graphic picture of a disturbed history. It explains why Winz appeared so dysfunctional and notched up such a bad record in such a brief time.
" It details the rush job in setting up Winz to fulfill "the dream" of former NZ First minister Peter McCardle, the dangers of concurrent policy and structural changes, and the resistance to Winz's formation from the inside, which ensured that Mrs Rankin inherited problems from the start.
" Despite her public acknowledgements of mistakes and pledges to improve, that inheritance had grown and Winz will be tainted for as long as she is in charge ..."
— Audrey Young, political reporter for the New Zealand Herald

" The CEO of a government department wants to throw a shindig at Taupo for corporate disciples. The cost is estimated at $160,000. She cancels it, suspends the organiser and then spends about the same amount on PR experts and lawyers to explain why its not her fault. Then she presides over a humungous student loans fiasco despite assuring the government that she can handle it. No sweat.
"The government calls in a former state services commissioner and he says it's a mess all right, an extravagant mess. The CEO gets the taxpayer to pay her lawyers' fees of $180 an hour so she can water down the report's findings before they're made public. Question: Is it right for the taxpayer to fork out to defend the reputation of a CEO paid more than $170,000 a year?"
— former MP Michael Laws, comment in Sunday Star Times

" The final Winz report seems to be such a pathetic version of the draft that it runs the risk of being useless. No one is being blamed or needs to take responsibility for anything. It seems that lawyers have sanitised it out of recognition in terms of finding out what is wrong.
" Perhaps it is part of the warped thinking that allows for the strange custom of rewarding top public servants with handsome bonuses simply for doing a well-paid job well. Now we also protect them from personal criticism. Surely at some point, public good, the public interest and openness must come into the equation beside natural justice..."
— Joan Chapple, Glendowie, comment in Letter to the Editor New Zealand Herald