The last 24 hours in Aotearoa’s New Zealand’s politics has provided more drama than a week’s worth of “Shortie Street” episodes combined and binge-watched.
It began approximately around 5.30 last night (7 July) with a disclosure by Clutha-Southland MP, Hamish Walker that he had leaked a list of eighteen covid19-infected Returnees names and details to three media outlets. (None of the three media companies, to their credit, released a single piece of personal info from the list.)
As an explanation, Mr Walker said he released the names, ages, and other details of the eighteen infected Returnees to reject accusations of racism and to prove his assertion ;
“These people are possibly heading for Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown from India, Pakistan and Korea.”
However, it was stated on RNZ’s Morning Report (8 July) that the List proved no such thing (@4.33).
Mr Walker then offered another explanation;
“I did this to expose the government’s shortcomings so they would be rectified.
The information that I received was not password protected by the government. It was not stored on a secure system where authorised people needed to log on. There was no redaction to protect patient details, and no confidentiality statement on the document.
I made serious allegations against the government’s Covid-19 response and passed on this information to prove those allegations.”
So the first explanation was to save himself from being tarred as a jingoistic racist. The subsequent explanation was framed to sound more “noble”.
Moreover, National’s former President, Michelle Boag, gave her “explanation” that;
“I very much regret my actions and did not anticipate that Hamish would choose to send it on to some media outlets but I am grateful that the media involved have chosen not to publish the 18 names that were contained within it.”
Ms Boag also (partially) revealed how she had come into possession of the list;
“The information was made available to me in my position as then Acting CEO of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust, although it was sent to my private email address.”
Many questions remain unanswered and a full picture remains unclear:
Q1: Who sent the email to Ms Boag? Why? What other personal, confidential details has this person sent to Ms Boag or others? What access does this person have?
Q2: Is this person an employee of Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust?
Considering that ARHT has stated categorically that Ms Boag would not have had direct access to patient data, the only other possibility is a person or persons unknown supplied it to her.
Q3: Will QC Mike Heron question Ms Boag?
Q4: Will QC Mike Heron attempt to find the identity of who sent the email to Ms Boag?
Q5: Will QC Mike Heron question Hamish Walker?
Q6: Will QC Mike Heron question Todd Muller?
Q7: Will QC Mike Heron have full access to all electronic devices belonging to Mr Walker, Ms Boag, Todd Muller, and anyone else who becomes implicated in this leak? Will forensic investigation be allowed on their devices?
Q8: What (if any) was Matthew Hooton’s involvement? What did Matthew Hooton know and when?
Q9: Will QC Mike Heron investigate Mr Hooton’s electronic devices?
Q10: When did Todd Muller find out? He claimed it was Monday (6 July) “lunch time“. What did he do in the intervening 30 hours that followed, before Mr Walker went public?
Q11: Mr Muller says he does not know Mr Walker’s motivation to release the List. Why did Mr Muller not ask Mr Walker’s motivation when he spoke directly with Mr Walker on Monday?
Q12: Was it really a “rogue operation” involving just two people? Who else knew about Ms Boag and Mr Walker’s use of the List?
Q13: What was the purpose of Ms Boag passing the list to Mr Walker? Why did she choose him? What discussion did the two have?
Ms Boag said to Stuff;
“It would be inappropriate for me to do that because I would be disclosing more details.”
So. There are “more details” she has not disclosed. What are those “details”?
Q14: If Ms Boag “did not anticipate that Hamish would choose to send it on to some media outlets” – what did she anticipate he would do with the List?
Q15: What other personal details has Ms Boag passed on in her role as acting CEO of Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust?
Q16: Why will Ms Boag and Mr Walker not front to media interviews? What do they know that remains unsaid?
Q17: What did Nikki Kaye know and when?
Q18: What prompted Mr Walker and Ms Boag to go public on 7 July? What factor(s) forced them to abandon their secrecy? Were they about to be “outed”?
There is more to this abuse of power than we have been told. The National Party damage control machine has swung into full mode and has successfully contained this outbreak of scandal.
They may be hopeless at containing viral outbreaks – but masters par excellence at managing scandals. (Perhaps because of considerable past experience.)
This is the party that thinks it is fit to govern.
ADDENDUM
According to a late evening news story on RNZ, Michelle Boag revealed the source for the List of eighteen covid19 positive Returnees. She claimed the information came from the Ministry of Health by way of emails that were regular updates sent to emergency medical services;
When she announced her involvement in the leak, Boag said she had access to the private information as the acting chief executive of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust.
She added the personal information was sent to her private email, but did not disclose who sent it – until now.
Boag told RNZ the Ministry of Health had sent daily emails to her private email, which included the sensitive details of the country’s Covid-19 cases.
Boag couldn’t explain why it was sent to her private email, but suspected it was because she was only temporarily in the role of chief executive.
The government has already confirmed emergency services were regularly sent the details of the country’s active cases, so they could take the proper precautions if responding to a call-out where someone with Covid-19 was present.
If this is true, then this makes her role in this scandal even worse.
The information would have been sent to her in good faith by the Ministry of Health. She was in a position of trust and privilege.
The information would have been intended to be used by emergency services in case their personnel ever had to attend an incident involving covid19-positive patients.
Sending helicopter medics blindly to a situation where covid19 was present would have endangered their lives and those around them.
For Ms Boag to wilfully mis-use this information for nefarious political purposes will destroy her career forever.
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References
RNZ: How the Hamish Walker Covid-19 patient detail leak played out
Stuff media: National MP Hamish Walker admits passing on leaked Covid-19 patient info from former party president Michelle Boag
Scoop: Press Statement From Michelle Boag – 7 July 2020
Mediaworks/Newshub: Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust says Michelle Boag ‘never’ had access to COVID-19 data
RNZ: Todd Muller ‘hugely angry’ after Walker/Boag leak (alt.link)
RNZ: National Party board to meet about Hamish Walker (alt.link)
RNZ: Covid-19 privacy breach info came from Health Ministry, Michelle Boag says
Twitter: Colin Jackson – 7 July 2020
Additional
RNZ: National’s attacks not what we need right now
Previous related blogposts
Life in Lock Down: Day 2 of Level 3
Life in Level 1: Reinfection – Labour’s kryptonite
Life in Level 1: Reinfection – No, Dr Bloomfield!
Life in Level 1: The Taxpayer’s Coin
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Acknowledgement: Sharon Murdoch
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This blogpost will be re-published in five days on “Frankly Speaking“. Reader’s comments may be left here (The Daily Blog) or there (Frankly Speaking).
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Brilliant cartoon, and National are definitely ‘not fit to govern’*, Frank. But we already knew that.
Your carefully crafted cutting questions will largely go unanswered, I suspect.
*Unless you are a wealthy member of ‘the club’ and can look forward to even more unearned and undeserved accumulation of wealth and property.
For the other 99% of the population, another National government would be a disaster far exceeding the disasters of all previous National governments combined.
Brilliant cartoon
Yes it is. One of the absolute best.
Ms Murdoch is one of my favourites, Kheala. Her insights and commentary, via her cartoons, are a taonga.
For the other 99% of the population, another National government would be a disaster far exceeding the disasters of all previous National governments combined.
Indeed, AFKTT. Whether it’s the sheer incompetence of the Nats; their utter lack of vision; or simply terrifying the populace by constantly demanding to open up without adequate testing and other precautions – I think the majority rhttps://thedailyblog.co.nz/2020/07/09/life-in-level-1-cunning-plans-unanswered-questions/?replytocom=514405#respondealise that they are as much a threat as the virus. (Hence Colin Jackson’s timely comment, above, on Twitter.)
When the Opposition cannot even fulfill the role of an Opposition, with no coherent criticisms and alternatives ( more roads don’t count), then what possible hope for hem as a potential government?
The answer is none, of course.
Mr Muller’s looseness with the truth, as evidenced in the last 48 hours, is also cause for concern.
Agree, Frank. The explanations so far only raise more questions.
We’ve had a few answered, Steve, and a lot that still remain. I’d still like to know what prompted Mr Walker and Ms Boag to make their revelations public on Tuesday.
Someone was working behind the scenes and I can only surmise that “someone” had such a dislike of Michelle Boag that when he learned what had happened he made clear that he would go public with the information. That forced Mr Walker and Ms Boag’s hands to go public.
That’s my guess, anyway.
Still, other questions remain; how many other Nats knew of this? What was the gameplan? And what else is Mr Muller holding back?
I simply find it incomprehensible that when Mr Muller spoke directly with Mr Walker on Monday that he did not ask the most basic question: what was Hamish Walker’s motivation?
And why did Michelle Boag choose Mr Walker to undertake this “cunning plan”?
More questions.
And unfortunately, today’s Newshub Nation made zero attempt to address the issue.
Excellent post Frank Macskasy.
I’m looking forward to the in depth public investigation and grilling of all the scum involved in this filthy politics scandal. There’s enough dirt and muck here to keep Mike Hosking, Duncan Garner and Tova O’Brien busy for weeks trying to paper over the ever widening cracks of their crooked pay masters.
After months of lock down hardship New Zealanders expect and deserve all our politicians to be rowing in a roughly similar direction, helping pull the the country safely toward the shores of good health and economic stability. Using an unprecedented worldwide pandemic as a tool for political manipulation is a spineless and shameful way to attempt to discredit the current government. It shows how low and and far into treacherous waters the poorly performing right wing Nats are prepared to drag the good ship Aotearoa. For what, a few percentage points at the polls?
This is absolutely reprehensible behaviour! These knob ends can’t be trusted with being in charge of shovelling freshly laid cow shit at Shifty McShits shit producing, river polluting shit farm, let alone with trying to be leaders in our community. What below the waterline scam will they come up with next? I’m sure there’s more muck to be raked in the lead up to the election, but really, in these heady times is this the best we as race of enlightened beings can achieve?
It’s time, for the sake of all our people and the future of our whole country and who knows, maybe even the whole world – as they have been watching us closely, for real statesmen and woman to stand up and be counted.
It’s most definitely not the time to sod off for a cup of tea and a wee lie down, thinking maybe if I close my eyes all this might just go away.
Using an unprecedented worldwide pandemic as a tool for political manipulation is a spineless and shameful way to attempt to discredit the current government. It shows how low and and far into treacherous waters the poorly performing right wing Nats are prepared to drag the good ship Aotearoa. For what, a few percentage points at the polls?
If that was the plan, BB, (and it’s the most plausible) it went horribly awry. Not only did it fail, but it gave the public another glimpse into the darkest corners of National Party machinations.
If anything costs them the election, this will be it.
Still, the question arises: what went wrong and what forced Hamish Walker to come clean? That is the missing piece in this puzzle.
I doubt Mike Heron QC reads TDB. Have you sent him a list of your questions, Frank? Could save him a lot of initial work and the taxpayer a few dollars.
Excellent suggestion, Verity.
Done.
Not even fit to be in opposition !
They certainly seem not to have mastered that role as yet, Kejo…!
Well, Frank,… a jolly good list of questions there, I’m sure that will keep them going for awhile,… I’m wondering about QC Heron however,… will he whitewash or will he be blunt and to the point? We’ve all seen the charades of past inquiry’s and the ‘smoothing over’ of political figures, – will QC Heron break the mould and treat us to real justice?
After all ,.. are we not a democratic nation that abides by the rule of law?
I will be very interested in QC Heron’s report as well, WK. He’s been handed two heads on a platter; Mr Woodhouse’s admission; inconsistancies from Todd Muller’s comments, plus other vital ‘leads’ for his investigation. If he can’t come up with something concrete to answer the questions I posed, there’s something seriously wrong somewhere.
I hope whoever supplied this information to Boag comes under very close scrutiny and is, if possible, sacked.
Comments are closed.