WARNING - This blog contains political views!
Still reading? Then I'll continue.
They say a week is long time in politics so if that's the case then the fortnight at the start of July must have seemed like an eternity for The National Party, the official opposition party in New Zealand. Quite how a political party could shoot itself in its own foot to such an extent that they nearly lost both legs is worthy of further investigation. Intrigued? Well let me explain.
Although the Covid-19 pandemic is still raging around the world but thankfully New Zealand, so far at least, appears to have it under control. Partly this is because we went into lockdown at a very early stage but also because we have strict border restrictions in place - to the extent that anyone arriving is placed in government assigned hotel and is required to remain there for two weeks. After which time, assuming that they test negative for the virus, they are allowed to leave and join the rest of the country.
It's all gone rather well, much to the annoyance of the opposition party. With an election on the horizon, and facing a competent and popular Prime Minister, the only option available was to poke holes in the border controls. Pretty soon stories began to emerge about systems and procedures under strain, detainees being allowed to mix with general hotel residents and people allowed to wander out at their own will. The government's position wasn't helped when two women were given a compassionate exception to leave to visit a dying relative but someone forgot to test them before letting them travel across country. When tested later, one of them tested positive and revealed that they had lied about their condition to ensure that they would be allowed to leave. This irresponsible behaviour put the once firm-footed government on the back foot. The opposition and press were having a field day. There was even a case reported where a homeless person was able to join a queue and enjoyed a two weeks vacation in a quarantined hotel - all expenses paid. Good on him I say but it did cast doubt on the strength of the controls at our borders, even if we were talking about a handful of such cases in tens of thousands of arrivals. But the borders were clearly under pressure. Arrivals we doing what they we meant to and arriving and quarantine hotels in Auckland were reaching capacity. Time then for the rest of NZ to help out. Cue NIMBYism . How dare they put people in hotels in <insert name of city here> without consulting me?
With tensions running high Hamish Walker, a National MP, noted "It's absolutely disgraceful that the community hasn't been consulted on this. These people are possibly heading for Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown from India, Pakistan and Korea". Quite what he thought to achieve by these racist comments is hard to fathom. Thankfully they were condemned from all quarters for what they were.
National Party leader Todd Muller said: "I've spoken to Hamish, expressed my disappointment and I certainly don't condone what he has said". Todd Muller, I should note at this point, was the newly elected leader of the opposition and had been in post around 45 days at this point after successfully ousting the previous leader on the back of poor polling numbers.
It's a good job then that Walker decided to clarify what he'd meant. "Calling me a racist is Labour's default tactic when they are unable to defend their blatant failures, this isn't about race it is about the countries these Kiwis are coming from," he said.
Well that clears that up. Not! And it wasn’t even accurate. According to a Reuters tally, US and Brazil have the highest number of Covid-19 cases followed by Russia, India and UK. But who needs accuracy when spreading racist misinformation.
The furore was just about dying down when the news came that the opposition party had been waiting for. Someone had leaked the names and addresses of the residents who had tested positive for the virus to the national media. This was not good news and no matter which way you looked at it, it cast doubt on the governments grasp of the controls at the borders. Our last line of defence against letting Covid-19 back into the general population seemed to be crumbling.
Muller said the breach was "quite staggering, it talks to a government that's slipping off the side of a cliff, in terms of managing this issue, the border, the information pertaining to it.” He went on to say “If they can't manage personal information, bluntly, they can't manage the border and they can't manage the country." He wasn’t finished. Is it a deliberate leak or is it accidental? It doesn't really matter at a level ... it's loose, it's shabby and it's a reminder these guys can't manage important things well - they need to step aside and let a competent government take over."
Ouch! Can’t say that the government didn’t deserve it. It was a serious breach of security and only the professionalism of the press had stopped the details being published.
The National Party's spokesperson for health, Michael Woodhouse, waded in and said this was "yet another serious failing that showed the government was not capable of managing Covid-19. This is unconscionable and unacceptable that those suffering from the incredibly dangerous virus now have to suffer further with their private details being leaked," Woodhouse said in a statement.
The Government was taking this seriously, as well it should, so launched an official inquiry into the matter. Mike Heron QC was appointed and, under the State Sector Act 1988 and the Inquiries Act 2013, was given powers of the State Services Commissioner "That will give Mr Heron the power to, if necessary, require the production of documents, summons witnesses and question parties under oath," the Prime Minister noted. If found to be deliberate, criminal charges could follow. Make no mistake, this was being taken very seriously and the government. It was not looking good for the Government. But something was about to change all that. Big time.
Just two days later, with the outrage still building in the media, Todd Muller revealed that he had been told by Walker that he was responsible for passing the private details of Covid-19 patients. Holy cow you couldn’t make his stuff up! After all that indignation, the National Party were behind the leaks in the first place. But why do it?
Walker admitted that he was extremely upset to be labelled "racist" after issuing a press release raising concerns about an influx of people arriving from India, Pakistan and Korea. So to prove he wasn’t, he sent on the list of names to the three main media outlets, under the promise of anonymity. Two slight problems. Firstly, the media didn’t publish the names, or disclose the origins of the people on the list. Secondly, the information he sent to media did not prove that his initial press release was factual or not racially motivated.
The spectacular own goal was about to get a lot worse for the National Party. Shortly after Walker's statement coming clean, former National Party president Michelle Boag put out her own media release saying it was her who had passed on the information. And it didn't stop there. Shortly after, it transpired that Michael Woodhouse had also been sent the information but had done nothing about it, opting instead to criticise the Government for the not being able to handle sensitive information. The irony meters broke that day. Yes there was no doubt that dirty politics were back and in full swing.
Not surprisingly, Walker and Boag resigned from their posts immediately. The National Party leader Todd Muller soldiered on, answering questions about what he knew about the leak and, more importantly when he knew it. Had he known before the leak was made public? Why didn’t he notify the government as soon as he realised that sensitive information had been released to the media? It perhaps wasn’t a surprise when he folded under pressure during an interview and it became clear that he’d lied to cover up the other lies. Why did he lie about what he knew and when he knew it? Oh, it wasn’t a lie “I just wasn’t a clear as I perhaps could have been.” Well I don’t know about you, but I’m convinced.
The inevitable happened After just 53 days in the post as the National Party Leader, Muller resigned with immediate effect, stating "It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party at this critical time for New Zealand.”
I’ll stop there, that’s enough politics for one blog. There is more to tell, such as the return of Judith ‘Crusher’ Collins and a crash in polling numbers but I’ll leave you to seek that out yourselves.
And the inquiry into the leak? The report was quietly issued at the end of July and concluded that the leak was "deliberate and politically motivated". Well that’s that then. Only time will tell if the National Party continue to operate their dirty politics campaign. You would hope that they have learnt their lesson and spend the next month on the run up to the General Election trying to win back the trust of the New Zealand electorate. History teaches us otherwise.
