Walker walks; Boag's characterisation of the leak called into question

National MP Hamish Walker announces he won't stand for re-election in Southland as his leader says he wants him gone and the party's board meets to discuss his future

8th Jul 20, 12:39pm by Jenée Tibshraeny

Hamish Walker

National MP Hamish Walker has announced he won’t be standing for re-election in the Southland electorate at the September 19 election.

He made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon, as the National Party board was meeting to discuss his fate.

National Leader Todd Muller on Wednesday morning effectively said he wanted Walker gone.

Walker on Tuesday admitted to giving media the personal details of 18 people with COVID-19 in quarantine.

He said he did so to expose the fact the information was supposedly being held insecurely.

However, reporters who received the information said Walker wanted them to see the names to justify his comment, criticised for being racist, that it was "absolutely disgraceful" that arrivals from "India, Pakistan and Korea" were going into managed isolation down south without the community being consulted.

Walker received the patients' details from former National Party President Michelle Boag, who said she received them in her capacity as the Acting CEO of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust (ARHT), even though they were sent to her personal email address.

However the Trust said Boag has never had access to any clinical or patient data held by it.

"ARHT is an integral part of the health system and we are entrusted with information about our patients which is properly protected by protocols which only enable access to those who need this data to care for the patient. We have reviewed these protocols and are confident that none of this patient information has been subject to any privacy breach," its chair Simon Tompkins said.

Boag has resigned from her role with ARHT. She will also no longer be part of National Deputy Leader Nikki Kaye’s campaign for Auckland Central.

Walker and Boag came clean more than 24 hours after the State Services Commission announced it had appointed Michael Heron QC to investigate the leak.

Walker reportedly only told Muller he was the leaker at midday on Monday, after he and other National MPs had spent much of the weekend attacking the Government for its handling of border control.

Muller reportedly asked Walker to own up publicly. He then received a letter from Walker's lawyers asking the party not to out Walker, citing privacy concerns.

Muller said: “There was a clear breach of trust, which goes against the values National holds as a party.

“The National Party Board will still meet today to discuss the selection of a new candidate.”

Muller has distanced himself from Boag, saying she didn't have anything to do with he and Kaye overthrowing Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett.

Walker said: “I wish to thank the people of Clutha-Southland who I have loved meeting, assisting and representing over the past two and a half years.

“I sincerely apologise for my actions.”

National Party President Peter Goodfellow said: "On behalf of the National Party Board of Directors, I would like to apologise for any distress caused to the individuals concerned as a result of the actions of one of our Members of Parliament."

Heron is expected to report back in three weeks' time.

A spokesperson for the State Services Commission said costs would likely be recovered from the various parties involved.

The media organisations that received the personal information chose to not share it.

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92 Comments

by Chairman Moa | 8th Jul 20, 12:46pm 1594169189

Muller showed the path to Jamie Lee Ross Party.

by dictator | 8th Jul 20, 12:59pm 1594169964

I'm interested in seeing how direct Muller's involvement is with the investigation into the health leaks. Now is as good a time as ever for National to start looking for a new leader, this ones no good either.

by Houseworks | 8th Jul 20, 1:02pm 1594170126

TM is a good leader I expect he will run very close in sept

by Chairman Moa | 8th Jul 20, 1:08pm 1594170537

Sept election will be a walk in the park for JA.
My guess is Crusher will be next in line for the job, she is smart for not taking up that role knowing they will lose the election.

by Contrarian | 8th Jul 20, 1:18pm 1594171099

And the book is out, with one more promised. Bring on the Crusher.

by Logicthinker | 8th Jul 20, 2:21pm 1594174915

And what about the timing to bring out the book, it can be seen as a negative for Muller and National even though her target was Key.
I thought she looked a little glum last night when there was a shot of her with the front bench, she probably got a rollicking from Muller about the book release.

by PocketAces | 8th Jul 20, 2:43pm 1594176219

Yeah, they might as well go full noise crooked

by RickStrauss | 8th Jul 20, 1:26pm 1594171613

The answer to dirty politics exposed is clearly...more dirty politics.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 2:23pm 1594174994

I think Collins too, perhaps with Luxon as deputy, with the change happening in Feb-March 2021.

by RickStrauss | 8th Jul 20, 3:37pm 1594179439

Actual Luxon to roll poor man's Luxon?

by Officebound | 8th Jul 20, 4:41pm 1594183273

Yep, Luxon to go next. Thankfully Muller will blow it all up, so he can walk in without having to use a knife.

If not him, then my call is that he won't be deputy. He aspires to be PM, and deputies often come with too much baggage for succession. Kind of like Labour have done with Grant Robertson, kept him at #3, so if/when he succeeds Jacinda, he's not tainted by being deputy during everything that's gone before (including potentially those things that led to Jacinda going)

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 5:33pm 1594186408

Everyone expects Luxon to be a leader of National at some point, the problem is how he gets there. Since he'll only just be a newbie MP, moving into the leadership before the 2nd half of 2022 seems unlikely, so who's going to be leader in the meantime?

I guess they could stick it out with Muller, like they did with Simon. Really depends if Muller gets them a result starting with a 2 or not.

by Houseworks | 8th Jul 20, 5:17pm 1594185467

JA is all talk and teeth, if voters want to see action it's not JA who can deliver any

by RickStrauss | 8th Jul 20, 5:22pm 1594185726

Was perfectly adequate for Key.

by Houseworks | 8th Jul 20, 5:44pm 1594187093

JA will be remembered for the year of non delivery

by dcnbwz | 8th Jul 20, 5:47pm 1594187222

Your comments *might* be respected more if you refrained from personal insult

by oldbloke1 | 8th Jul 20, 6:49pm 1594190964

It's the twitter troll in him.

by Pietro | 9th Jul 20, 6:53am 1594234397

You are joking of course?

by RickStrauss | 9th Jul 20, 9:20am 1594243221

He's correct, but possibly not in the way he thinks. 2020 will be remembered at least for COVID-19 and the varied responses to it. The failures of right wing dictators' responses (Duterte, Bolsonaro, Putin, Trump), for example. The comparative success in other countries.

by Quiet Desperation | 9th Jul 20, 2:20pm 1594261205

Why mention her teeth? Just throwing in a pointless comment about her appearance to denigrate her however you can? It says a lot when someone uses another person's appearance to go after them. Decent people stick to the actual issues.

by philthy | 9th Jul 20, 11:34am 1594251243

Because it's pretty much all he's got, which is not much.

by Foxglove. | 8th Jul 20, 1:03pm 1594170193

sensible follows insensible. predictable as inevitable.

by Mo | 8th Jul 20, 1:07pm 1594170445

Xenophobia not data security the more likely reason for the Privacy Act breach.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 1:25pm 1594171531

'Xenophobia not data security the more likely reason'.... you could add simple dumbarse stupidity and attention deficit syndrome or just possibly the born to rule twat might have spotted a genuine irregularity of concern in the spreadsheet data. I'm keeping my mind open - slightly.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 2:24pm 1594175090

Apparently the irregularity is that the spreadsheet "didn't have a password".

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 3:39pm 1594179561

If that is all he has then Walker has been monumentally stupid.... to state the obvious. I'm struggling to accept he could have been that dumb.

by Foxglove. | 8th Jul 20, 4:31pm 1594182662

Imagine you have seen it before. So desperate to get a grip on the next rung on the monkey ladder, loses any grip on caution. Remember General Stillwell, Vinegar Joe, “the higher the monkey climbs the tree, the more you see his arse.”

by J.C. | 8th Jul 20, 1:15pm 1594170916

Nothing worse than a troll politician that goes with the race card

by profile | 8th Jul 20, 1:52pm 1594173154

Apart from having your personal data stored on an unsecured spreadsheet. No wonder the gun lobby have been up in arms about a gun register. I wonder if the gun register will go on a spread sheet too? Or perhaps the paper and crayons system?

by youngdumbandbroke | 8th Jul 20, 2:27pm 1594175253

Maybe wechat or tiktok?

by redcows1 | 8th Jul 20, 2:31pm 1594175492

Why, because they are liable to have their personal details outed by a right of centre party appointee of some board or other?

by profile | 8th Jul 20, 2:46pm 1594176371

Perhaps a system could be set up so "some board or other" can't get anywhere near MOH personal medical information or how many guns you have at home?

by RickStrauss | 9th Jul 20, 9:21am 1594243276

"She asked for it!"

by OpenMinded | 8th Jul 20, 1:18pm 1594171082

There is something in the party Koolaid in that electorate, this is the second young entitled kid in a row!

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 3:45pm 1594179927

Benson Pope, Claire Curran, Dunedin south. Electorate themed incompetence Koolaid comes in red bottles as well.

by brisket | 8th Jul 20, 4:32pm 1594182724

Overly safe electorates! It's not as if the Nat MP for Southland will be facing any tricky questions from constituents, they could run a mouldy banana and win in a canter. Or even Todd Barclay.

by Paradoxx | 8th Jul 20, 1:19pm 1594171179

First Todd Barclay in Clutha/Southland and now this clown. It seems when it’s a safe blue seat you can put any chump in to run and win. The people of that electorate have to be embarrassed with their recent representatives. They deserve better.

by Foxglove. | 8th Jul 20, 1:32pm 1594171973

And ditto the adjacent seat of Invercargill occupied by Ms Dowie, soon to quit. Victim, willing or not, of another National fiasco redolent of skullduggery in high circles. Must be a bit cold down there, seem to be attracted to heat. And as President Truman succinctly quipped long ago, if you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen. Still applies doesn’t it, well and truly.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 1:43pm 1594172629

Both not sophisticated enough to be aware they were being drawn into Machiavellian orbits. I detest the way Dowie became obliged to fall on her sword.

by Foyle | 8th Jul 20, 3:59pm 1594180781

Dowie was re-selected by National to stand after all of last years embarrassment and only recently decided to chuck it in. Seems (from outside) like the party stood behind her, and it was her choice to retire. Where do you get the falling on the sword stuff?

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 4:09pm 1594181340

Fair point. I've made assumptions which may not align with the facts. I just sensed, rightly or wrongly, that she was on the receiving end of more public and by inference media 'blame' judgement than Ross. I would like to have seen her tough the sneering out and carry on but easy for me to say that.

by russellj | 8th Jul 20, 8:09pm 1594195781

I detest the way Dowie played the badly treated woman victim despite being happy to have a lengthy affair with JLR - poor judgment (was having the affair ? or choosing JLR to be the affairee?) but then to be the martyr - get a grip.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 3:57pm 1594180671

Yes, they are about to get help. The recently formed Dunedin North Twattish MP Voter Support Group is opening a satellite office in Balclutha.

by Jack Lumber | 8th Jul 20, 4:15pm 1594181738

The locals choose the candidate - what does that say?

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 4:33pm 1594182782

If only. List MPs get into parliament with voters having limited influence. Hence the one finger salute to the public attitude of some.

by Hook | 8th Jul 20, 4:36pm 1594183012

Yeah, and the electorate chose their representative. As I've seen said here before - you could put a sheep in a blue coat in there and they'd vote for it.. speaks volumes about the electorate

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 4:45pm 1594183513

Same applies in numerous electorates across the country. Multiple plainly out of their depth coalition MPs demonstrate that sheep voting is not confined to Clutha.

by Contrarian | 8th Jul 20, 1:20pm 1594171210

National better take stock again and reshuffle, aye. All those from the Party who want to undermine, raise hands now and show yourself.

by mikekirk29 | 8th Jul 20, 1:23pm 1594171412

National are toast. Dirty politics personified.
Publicly revealing folk so that society can (he hoped) vilify them during a pandemic.
Nazi tactics

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 1:44pm 1594172656

Ignorance of history on display, Godwins law invoked.

by Fritz | 8th Jul 20, 1:42pm 1594172523

Everything goes in cycles. Labour were crap for a couple of terms in opposition (actually, still kind of are) now it's the turn of the Nats.

by andyb | 8th Jul 20, 1:42pm 1594172569

No doubt Walker is an idiot and had to go.

I think we should acknowledge that the NZ media outlets he shared the information with chose not to publish it and raised the red flag. In many other countries I don't think the media would have taken the same principled approach.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 1:46pm 1594172805

Bit soon to call that one I suggest Andy. The media is claiming the moral high ground but there could be multiple less worthy reasons for them not pursuing this 'story' further.

by redcows1 | 8th Jul 20, 2:36pm 1594175767

Because they weighed it up and since the last election the countries moral direction has made a subtle shift and unlike the National party and a few others they aren't completely braindead stupid.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 3:53pm 1594180431

OK. A moral non biased or agenda driven media. Novel concept. Will try to wrap my head around that one.

by childofthesun | 8th Jul 20, 5:57pm 1594187840

Redcows. That's an insightful comment and I can only agree. After 3 years in opposition, the National Party hasn't picked up on the shift to which you refer. The election of the patrician Muller is evidence if it was required. A party still reeking of privilege, entitlement, arrogance and elitism with an absolute disrespect for the NZ public. The hideous Boag considers it acceptable to share the health details of covid-19 patients. This is utterly despicable. I suspect another two terms in the wilderness may be required before they become electable.

by Uh Oh | 8th Jul 20, 2:02pm 1594173759

Inevitable result, stupid move disclosing private information to media - bad timing for National to have questionable members with bad judgement just before an election where they are supposed to get elected primarily for having good judgement

Muller and co knew better and it is the right call to cut them out of govt

by junglejuice | 8th Jul 20, 2:42pm 1594176122

So he'll stay on until the election and then (as is customary) collect an MP's salary for another three months after that? Hard life, isn't it?

by J.C. | 8th Jul 20, 2:45pm 1594176352

Barclay went missing as soon as possible. Still on salary. A real piece of work that one.

by Pietro | 8th Jul 20, 2:57pm 1594177030

Michelle Boag is way ahead of Hamish Walker in National's hierarchy by several pay grades. Others will definitely be involved here. Too many loose ends, too many things not quite stacking up. Such action as this isn't taken lightly or in some maverick fashion. Walker's the chump, the fall guy here. Watch this space.

by solardb | 8th Jul 20, 6:29pm 1594189794

Possibly in her twisted brain , she thought she was doing the party a favour. Pick the dumbest MP , already under fire for racist comments , and give him a list , which presumably contains non kiwi sounding names, to leak . Then Muller gets to take the high ground and fire him. Only walker got legal advice , and took her with him .

by KH | 8th Jul 20, 3:11pm 1594177903

What is on that spreadsheet the anti democratic Labour don't want us to see.
We don't need names but the demographics might show something interesting.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 3:32pm 1594179128

It doesn't include nationalities.

The nationalities are already publicly available anyway: https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-no…

by KH | 8th Jul 20, 5:20pm 1594185620

No nationalites lanthanide. It's "country returned from" Majority India. Half as many as that Australia. (and where before that?) And a few USA.
No China!
No ethnicity stated - could be anything.
No info as to citizen /resident /other

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 4:54pm 1594184085

Actually 'last country returned from'. Might not be a significant difference but leaves the possibility open that they could have transited from elsewhere. I recall cases being reported of infected travellers from elsewhere such as Kenya and from memory Afghanistan but don't see those places on the current list.

by KH | 8th Jul 20, 5:23pm 1594185810

Good spot middleman.
Democracy requires actual information so the folk can evaluate the decision of the government.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 5:38pm 1594186707

Yeah you're right.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 5:40pm 1594186853

If there is a faint scent of rat always keep an open mind that there could be one.

by oldbloke1 | 8th Jul 20, 6:54pm 1594191249

There is - but picking it out from the available candidates at the moment is difficult. Walker? Boag? Some other national party person?

by Mo | 8th Jul 20, 6:25pm 1594189533

Pretty obvious the content of interest was the surnames and the liklihood that they sounded sufficiently foreign ie they connoted Pakistani, Indian or Korean ethnicity (consistent with Walker's earlier xenophobic statements). Mean, nasty, dim, xenophobic tories.

by middleman1 | 8th Jul 20, 7:31pm 1594193512

Mo. Damn straight, next thing you know they'll be creating policy that discriminates against people with chinese sounding names.

by GV 27 | 9th Jul 20, 6:54am 1594234470

Yes, good to see the PM come out so strongly against anyone doing that sort of thing.

by sit23 | 9th Jul 20, 7:34am 1594236855

Hamish Walker never mentioned ethnicities, as you well know. He only discussed Nationalities. Totally different. His story about only wanting to show the crap security in the Health Ministry will be shown to be true later.

by solardb | 8th Jul 20, 6:24pm 1594189463

Aren't they all kiwis?

by Zack Brando | 8th Jul 20, 3:14pm 1594178053

Muller is handling it well, I'll give him that.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 3:32pm 1594179171

By learning about it at Monday lunchtime and not saying anything for 30 hours?

Yeah, sterling.

by mlpc | 8th Jul 20, 3:57pm 1594180676

Because he had to take legal advice.

Compare his speed with Ardern's record of non-sacking of Curran and Clark. She should have sacked both of them, but avoided doing so.

by the Joneses | 8th Jul 20, 4:24pm 1594182277

What about Kurt Taogaga? Jacinda kicked him out the door pretty darn fast.

by profile | 8th Jul 20, 6:42pm 1594190537

Yeah, Nah..

by GV 27 | 9th Jul 20, 6:56am 1594234579

What about the guy who prepared a report based on racial profiling of Chinese surnames? Who is still part of her cabinet? Who doesn't seem to get sacked no matter how badly he stuffs things up? Who is in charge of our economic recovery? Who just got promoted on their party list?

Crocodile tears.

by philthy | 9th Jul 20, 11:41am 1594251704

There wasn't really any choice but to do something like that.
National flatly refused to allow any statistics on the numbers of overseas property buyers were in the NZ market, if they had done we could have had a sensible debate about it at the time.
But of course the Nats had vested interests they wanted to protect.

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 5:40pm 1594186816

Because he had to take legal advice.

I didn't specify what he should have done, just that he appears to have done nothing aside from "seek legal advice". He could have advised Mike Heron that he had information relevant to the investigation, but not provided any details.

He didn't.

by profile | 8th Jul 20, 4:05pm 1594181152

Yeah, better to sack immediately and do the PG later. Walker left regretting he didn't do a Kris "I can't put anything in writing bro" Faafoi". What is Faafoi up to these days?

by Lanthanide | 8th Jul 20, 5:41pm 1594186900

I think Hamish did enough writing last week.

by profile | 8th Jul 20, 6:41pm 1594190467

Yeah, he should have been more cunning like Kris. What is Kris up to now? Is he back on TV?

by Nzdan | 8th Jul 20, 6:54pm 1594191263

Filming another season of What Now.

by Long Pockets | 8th Jul 20, 7:11pm 1594192280

"a letter from Walker's lawyers asking the party not to out Walker, citing privacy concerns"

Privacy concerns??!!
Such blatant hypocrisy it's almost taking the piss.

by andyb | 9th Jul 20, 1:35pm 1594258553

That was my thought too.. the cheek of this muppet to cite privacy concerns about him being outed as the source of leaking private details.

by redcows1 | 8th Jul 20, 7:11pm 1594192316

What's with the bit from the trust stating Boag doesn't (or is not supposed to) have access to the patient lists. And didn't I read somewhere that Walker obtained the names before getting Boags list?
Glad there's a high level enquiry.

by solardb | 8th Jul 20, 7:32pm 1594193544

She's now saying she didnt get it form the trust , but form the ministry of health directly. see stuff.co.nz

by redcows1 | 8th Jul 20, 7:40pm 1594194025

Just saw that . Seems to me she has added to her story but is using the enquiry to hold back on some of it. Probably just my instinctive mistrust of her, or maybe little things like she didn't immediately say it was nothing to do with the trust .

by sit23 | 9th Jul 20, 7:29am 1594236543

Don't even think about Judith Collins doing anything. Like Michelle Boag, she has far too much bad baggage to be where she is, let alone further up the pecking order. The only people who put up with people like them are the ones who think the same . The vast majority of Kiwi voters will run a mile from either of them when they are reminded of their pasts coming up to the election.