So earlier this week, two things happened. Winston got his lawsuit result back … and the National Party started demanding that he pay for it.
Now, in a sense, you could be forgiven (by somebody else) for seeing National’s point. The judgement was reasonably clear – the assertion that Paula Bennett and/or Anne Tolley (inter alia) had leaked Winston’s pension overpayment details to the media as part of some sort of targeted political hit-job, was unproven. Indeed, would have been very difficult to actually prove in the first place.
So therefore, if Tolley & Bennett were not found guilty – and the taxpayer was footing the bill for the whole fruitless exercise, perhaps some recompense was in order?
Balderdash. There are three salient points to be made here. The first is that the judgement also quite clearly agrees that Winston’s privacy was breached, in a highly unusual and improper manner. The only thing it disagrees with is that the culprit could be positively identified.
And that, as it happens, is not necessarily too terrible of a thing. Insofar as, if we cannot actually prove to a reasonable standard that somebody has done it … then of course the law should not assert that they have.
The second, is that as Winston’s privacy was breached in this way, it’s good that somebody took both government apparatus and relevant Ministers notionally responsible to task over it. Bennett has a bit of a history of making improper disclosures about Ministry of Social Development payment recipients for political impact – and previously she has managed to get away much more easily than she did this time. Possibly because impoverished mothers dealing with WINZ are less able to afford High Court lawsuits than veteran pensioner politicians armed with the resources of state.
The utilization of taxpayer money in this way, in other words, while it might seem a vainglorious counter-charge in pursuit of political scalps as part of a personal vendetta … is actually a safeguarding and upholding of our rights as taxpayers to be treated fairly by our state and government. It is, in short, that thing NZ First has so often claimed to be about – “Keeping The Bastards Honest”.
But the third point … is that I am not sure the judgement as it was, really lets National off the hook. At least, not enough for it to be pompously demanding that the victim – and for all his faults, in this he truly was – of malfeasance, pay back the entire sum total of his costs in pursuit of justice.
Now, I am going to astound everybody – not least of which, myself – by stating that Heather du Plessis-Allan got something right. Not recently, but a year ago, but of fresh saliency and relevance in light of this week’s judicial findings.
To quote her – “The reason I say that is because in the weeks before the leak, I was told by the Nats that the nats had the information.
They told me they were considering leaking it. They told me how they would leak it, the process they would follow to cover their tracks. Without going into details, I can tell you that’s exactly how it played out.
So the chances that the Nats leaked it are about 99 per cent.”
That’s from a piece upon the subject she wrote in late August of last year. A veritable lifetime ago in multiple senses of the term. But nonetheless, an interesting remark in light of what has just occurred.
For while this is not exactly the sort of evidence that one could viably take to court – partially because it is hearsay, and partially because I suspect a journalist’s protections of sources would mean that it would be difficult to compel her to unveil more details that might actually lead to surety about the situation …
… it nevertheless suggests rather strongly that Winston WAS right to point the finger toward National.
And that what has just happened this week, wherein the verdict has come in, and National are demanding that Winston pay up, apologize, and all the rest of it, is a case of a party who were probably actually guilty of wrongdoing having an incredibly lucky escape and then doubling down on their visage of tortured innocence. Certainly, they have had few strong blows against the Government in recent weeks (for entirely understandable reasons – blow-BACK on the other hand, being another matter), so the chance to actually salvage some shrinking vestige of moral high ground must have proven irresistible.
The fact that Tolley and Bennett have escaped direct and official censure for this gambit, should in no way detract from the fact that Winston has been partially vindicated. It should also not distract from the very real possibility that National remains secretly guilty of the offence that has been charged against it.
It is repugnant for it to be found that Winston was, indeed, the victim of such a breach – and then to expect him to have to pay for the proving that he has been wronged against.
It is also most curious that we can have senior figures of our political and journalistic sphere pretty sure that National as a party WAS actively involved in the leaking which ensued, and because we cannot decisively prove WHICH National high-up it came from, this therefore lets the party as a whole and as an entity off the hook.
National can and will spin this as some sort of grandiloquent vindication. It is nothing of the sort.
Poor Winston hey? Got his hand caught in the cookie jar and blames everyone except himself.
Should be investigated for fraud, not fit for parliament
He paid the money back. Fact his his privacy was breached, I’d be pretty sure someone flicked an email to Tolley or Bennett. Bill English get caught out ripping off the tax payer too. he ended up with a knighthood.
You saw the headline but did not read the story. Thankfully the law saw the breach and as Martyn alludes too via HDPA, National were donkey deep.
Well as much as I loathe the man, someone leaked private information and if someone does then there should be an inquiry. His party is being investigated as you know for their not so clever Trust or whatever it was!
Lol … yeh let’s just focus on one aspect like duh… hello!! a breach was committed, if it can happen to Winston Peters it can happen to you! Paula Bennett is the biggest crook out and too her party! Low values, low ethics low blows – typical behaviour of a party trying to get up from the shit they caused!
Lol … yeh let’s just focus on one aspect like duh… hello!! a breach was committed, if it can happen to Winston Peters it can happen to you! Paula Bennett is the biggest crook out and too her party! Low values, low ethics low blows – typical behaviour of a party trying to get up from the shit they caused!
BG -amazing how wrongly you have interpreted the finding.
The judgement said:
Did Peters do anything wrong? No
Was Peters wronged? Yes
Did Tolley and Bennet do anything wrong? can’t be proved because those who know won’t tell. In other words people like HDA are selective in their so-called journalism.
In the end it really doesn’t matter who pays what. What really matters is that this is yet another nail in the coffin of Peters career. Consider:
> He’s been made a laughing stock over his pension
> His party is under SFO investigation with the results promised before the election
> The obvious boondoggle of the Northport expansion is dead now that the cruise liner traffic has disappeared from Auckland harbour and the country is heading into a depression
> I would guess most NZF voters still think he was a traitor for going with Labour and the Greens.
So it’s hard to imagine a scenario where NZF retain 5% in the election.
” So it’s hard to imagine a scenario where NZF retain 5 % in the election ”
Bahahahahaha!
Where have I heard that before?
Oh that’s right, Bill English’s ” Cut out the middleman ”
National and Bridges are toast. Bridges will remain all year the laughing stock, the knives are out and it will be the end to his political career.
🙂
The number of times old Winston has been hauled up for such fraudulent behavior, one would have thought by now that its true but every time it gets white washed and he gets off scot free.
There seems to be a clear lack of accountability for actions among all these politicians, they all seem to get a wet bus ticket and away laughing again.
So sick of all this nonsense I have decided Im not voting for a political party again.
Mark Read the facts.
Peters did nothing wrong. This was a routine WINZ stuff-up. It was likely referred to the SSC and Ministers to cover themselves.
Were the Ministers actually in touch with their constituents then they would have known that it was a regular sort of stuff-up, and, crucially, in this case, the victim wasn’t somebody that the MSD could just walk all over.
The amount of money over x years, was so paltry, that only the pancaked girls who work the junk yards and who still think poor, could start to believe Peters would commit a crime to get it. They are the ones who really showed us what dirty little scrubbers they are. Vulgar vulgar vulgar dumb Nats.
Too much dirty politics in NZ and not enough free speech.
Paula Benefit moved pretty quick to quash some info about her past but gets away with it! https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11885404
I don’t blame Winston for taking them down a peg.
Hideous woman
The irony in that she was found innocent of the leak, given her previous penchant for being proud at releasing other beneficiaries names AND would do it again, is not lost on anyone.
Reading comments attacking Winston over this are absurd.
BUT!! Stop the Bus! If Winston promises to partner up with the Nats to form a government after the election, then maybe theyll shut the fuck up about it?
Haha, yeah !.. its hard to tell if they get the baby dummy stuck back in their mouths if they would , or seriously want to continue being no- friends- National,…because at the rate they’re going, – they will continue to be on the opposition benches next election.
Anybody who believes benifit and co. had nothing to do with the release of Winston’s confidential information for political gain, has cognitive impairment. Be quite clear, these s bags would have no problems doing exactly the same to you dear reader.
Or cognitive dissonance because they cant believe their idols were capable of doing such things if the courts found them guilty. Yet, the common person knows otherwise…
Didn’t Tolley admit that she’d told her sister about Winston’s private pension details? That’s guilty in my book. It’s no different to a doctor going home and telling a family member about a patient’s private medical details. They’d be sacked on the spot and deregistered by the Medical Council for the offence.
That’s right , – and for all we know Tolley’s sister could be chief editor of a large media outlet or a minion on the party political machine.
Which is exactly why that law is there.
Politicians as preying mantis – eating each other’ heads off? Not reasonable and not seemly. Get on with running the country and look to the mote in your own eyes and correct your faults instead of trying to score off your opposite numbers.
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