Peter Dunne resigns from Cabinet but will continue to support National-led government

By Bernard Hickey

Inland Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has resigned as a minister after an investigation into the leaking of a GCSB report found he had 86 email exchanges with Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in the 13 days before the leak was published in the Dominion Post, including many that discussed the report.

Dunne refused to give the investigator David Henry access to all the text in the 86 exchanges and resigned after Prime Minister John Key demanded he hand over the emails or resign.

Dunne has denied leaking the report to Vance and has denied any inappropriate relationship with the journalist, but has said he thought about leaking the report and that the emails disclosed information inappropriately and were "irrational and inexplicable".

Prime Minister John Key announced the resignation in a Friday afternoon news conference, saying he asked Dunne to resign after he would not release all the 86 emails to investigator David Henry to back his claim he did not leak the report.

Dunne said in a later press conference he had considered leaking the report to Vance, but decided against it. He also denied meeting Vance the day before the newspaper published an article on the leaked report, despite an email showing Vance telling Dunne she was ready for a meeting over coffee and despite Dunne saying he left his office for the meeting but was waylaid by others and never made the meeting.

Despite the shock resignation, Key said Dunne had pledged his continued support in parliament for the government on confidence and supply and that an early election was not more likely.

Key said he would continue to be able to govern with 63 votes in the 121 seat parliament, given National's 59 seats and four votes from ACT (1) the Maori party (3) remained in place. Finance Minister Bill English would become acting finance minister.

See David Henry’s report into the unauthorised disclosure of Rebecca Kitteridge’s compliance review of the GCSB here.

"When I announced the terms of reference for the inquiry I made it very clear that I expected all Ministers and their staff to fully cooperate," Key said.

"In this situation, a sensitive government government was leaked to a reporter and that is a very serious matter. The report shows that Mr Dunne has not met all of the requests for information from the inquiry. I am extremely disappointed with what has taken place," Key said.

"I expect my ministers to always uphold the highest standards, and to be held to account for their actions," he said. "I have met with Mr Dunne to discuss the matter. He has advised me that he remains unable to fully meet the inquiry's requests, and accordingly, he offered, and I have accepted his resignation as a Minister."

Key said Henry had not been able to rule out Dunne leaking the report.

Key said Dunne had declined to give Henry email records and Key had asked for his resignation after Dunne declined again to release the records.

3News journalist Patrick Gower asked both Key and Dunne in the Friday afternoon news conferences if Dunne had become "besotted" with Vance. Dunne denied any infatuation and said his relationship with her was professional. Key said Dunne had denied any inappropriate relationship with Vance in a Wednesday evening meeting with Key.

Key said he was shocked and shaken by the detail in the report and could not explain Dunne's actions.

Dunne news conference

A clearly shaken Dunne spoke for around 30 minutes at a news conference on Friday afternoon, admitting he had acted inappropriately in discussing the report with Vance.

He even detailed how he had arranged to meet her on one morning, but had eventually stood her up after meeting others on the way. The Henry report showed Dunne and Vance had 64 email exchanges while Dunne was overseas on holiday between March 30 and April 7 in America with his wife. 

"I cannot reasonably or rationally explain my actions," Dunne said.

“While I did not leak the report, and challenge Fairfax to confirm that, some of my actions after I received an advance copy of the report were extremely unwise and lacked the judgement reasonably expected of a Minister in such circumstances," he told the conference, adding he had accepted responsibility for that and had resigned because of that.

“The sole reason why I did not disclose the full content of my emails was because of my strong belief that citizens, be they constituents, members of the public or journalists, ought to be able to communicate with their elected representatives in confidence if they wish, and we tamper with that right at our collective peril," he said.

“However, be all that as it may, I acknowledge that I have not lived up to the high professional standards I have always set myself as a Minister. I have therefore concluded that I cannot continue to function effectively in these circumstances, given the lapses of judgement I have shown. The honourable course for me to follow now is to offer my resignation as a Minister."

Dunne went on to say the last two days had been the "nastiest" of his political life and he now wanted to spend time with his family. 

“The last few days have been especially difficult for my wife and family, whose support throughout I acknowledge with huge gratitude; for my staff, whose careers will be affected, for my friends, and colleagues in the UnitedFuture Party."

Dunne said he had not decided whether to run again as a candidate in the Ohariu electorate, but would continue as its MP for now. His party, UnitedFuture, was deregistered last week as a party after it disclosed it was not confident of having the required minimum of 500 members. 

“My focus from now will be on representing my Ōhariu constituents and rebuilding my party, UnitedFuture," Dunne said. “For my family’s sake, I request that our privacy be respected at this difficult time.”

Political reaction

Labour Leader David Shearer said Key had put the survival of his "increasingly unstable government ahead of getting to the bottom of who leaked a sensitive report on our national security."

Shearer said Key should have put Dunne under oath.

“New Zealanders deserve to know the truth. It may be that this is a criminal matter, and it could end up being the police who do Mr Key’s work for him," Shearer said. “Peter Dunne appears to have misled the New Zealand public and if cannot be upfront with the public he must resign from Parliament," he said.

NZ First leader Winston Peters said the Police should be called in to investigate the leak of the report as a criminal matter.

“The Prime Minister fails to understand the importance of maintaining the integrity of New Zealand’s security system in a world hit by increasing intelligence theft and terrorism," Peters said. “Mr Key overlooked his international obligations and has treated a serious breach of security in a cavalier manner. Police should have been called in from the outset," he sid.

The Green Party said the National Government was unstable and unethical and relied on the vote of disgraced MPs.

“Legislation such as to enable the SkyCity deal now depend on the vote of disgraced ex-minister Peter Dunne and John Banks who is facing court charges. Like the last days of the Shipley Government, John Key is having to cobble together a coalition of the disgraced," Green co-leader Russel Norman said.

“The police are likely to investigate this case, but in the meantime John Key has serious questions to answer about whether Mr Dunne’s actions compromised New Zealand security or defence," he said.

The Henry report

The 17 page report by Henry into the leak of the Kitteridge report on the GCSB was focused on a Fairfax article published on April 9 titled "Secret report unveils extensive illegal spying", which included details from a final version of the report dated March 22. He said it was most likely Vance had "gained access" to the report on Monday April 8.

Henry said he had identified only three people with access to the report over that time period who had contact with Vance. Two were public servants and had not leaked the report.

The third person was Dunne, who denied Henry access to the content of 86 email exchanges between Dunne and Vance between March 27 and April 9.

Dunne showed Henry the edited text of 41 of the 44 emails he sent to Vance during that period, including one sent by Vance to Dunne at 11.38 am on April 8 saying Vance was waiting to meet Dunne for coffee. 

Dunne confirmed to Henry he was due to meet Vance on April 8, but did not meet her.  Dunne left Bowen House at 11.35 am and did not return until 12.27pm, Henry said.

"He advises me that he did not in fact meet the reporter that day. He has also advised me that he did not give the reporter access to the Kitteridge report," Henry said.

(Updated with attached report and details from press conferences, reaction from political parties, details from report)