The Outsider Insider: National party under pressure after Covid leak

Mike Williams says it is hard justify Todd Muller's delayed response to the leaked Covid-19 details saga. Photo / File

The events of the last 10 days have given us a rare insight into the culture of the National Party and a measure of how Todd Muller, the party's new leader, might behave under pressure and manage his caucus team.

The drama began with an odd press statement released by National's Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker.

There had been speculation about using the mostly empty hotels in Queenstown as quarantine venues for New Zealanders currently scrambling to get home in large numbers.

Hamish Walker criticised the Government for failure to consult on this proposal and raised the possibility of 11,000 returnees from "India, Pakistan and South Korea".

It is unlikely Walker has racist attitudes personally as he recently married his Māori partner, but the statement was condemned as racist and "dog-whistle politics".

It was an extremely silly statement as all the returnees at present are New Zealand citizens and the only explanation for Walker's outburst was it being an attempt to appeal to the minority of backwoodsmen who think "Kiwi" only means "Pākehā".

Party leader Todd Muller expressed his "disappointment" at Walker's statement but there was no attempt to discipline him beyond that weak slap on the wrist.

I was surprised at Muller's mild response as National is unlikely to win an election without at least a degree of support from the Asian New Zealanders Walker implicitly insulted.

The plot thickened a few days later when three media outlets, NZME, Stuff and Radio New Zealand were sent copies of lists of Covid-19 sufferers. This was a blatant breach of the privacy of these patients and though these media outlets published the fact that they had received the lists, no personal details were published.

This exemplar of journalistic integrity is the sole positive aspect of what is otherwise a desperate and sordid saga.

Party leader Muller and National health spokesman Michael Woodhouse both condemned the leak and attacked the Government, citing the disclosure as evidence of "shambolic" handling of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis.

Later developments suggest that at this point, Woodhouse had a good idea of the source of the leaks as he had been getting similar lists from Michelle Boag after she'd called him to find out his private (non-parliamentary) email address.

It is impossible to believe Woodhouse did not tell his leader a former National Party president was sending him exactly what had been leaked.

Perhaps Woodhouse, who'd been lampooned for claiming (with no supporting evidence whatever) that a "homeless" person had slipped into quarantine and scored a fortnight in a luxury hotel, thought he could brazen out the matter if the real source became public.

Following this episode, Walker approached Muller, admitted being the source of the leak and presented a letter from a QC which said no law had been broken.

Mike Williams

Muller then took a full day to consider the situation before writing to the National Party Board to urge then to remove Walker's nomination for the general election.

It is hard to justify Muller's delayed response. I cannot imagine Bill English, John Key or Helen Clark doing anything other than firing Walker on the spot.

At this point it became public that Michelle Boag, in her role as acting chief executive of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust – an essential medical service – had been receiving lists of Covid-19 patients and passing them on to Walker, who she had mentored before his election. Somewhat later the Woodhouse connection also emerged.

For many years I regularly rubbed shoulders with Michelle Boag and I came to regard her as a friend of sorts.

She struck me as intelligent, so I am stunned at the developments of the week just past.

As Labour Party president, my first memory of Michelle Boag is a cold July election night in 2002 at the old TVNZ studios at Avalon.

She had become National Party president that year, having won in a noisy campaign in which she promised to "end the rot" and "cut out the dead wood".

I developed a degree of respect for her that night. She kept a brave face as news got worse as the night wore on and her National Party lost 12 seats from the opposition – an unprecedented disaster for any party, which ended up with less than 21 per cent of the party vote.

Now disgraced and resigned from her beloved National Party, it is a tragic end to 47 years of service from which there can be no return.

With Todd Muller compromised by events she initiated and the Michael Heron QC report into the whole sorry saga to still come, Michelle Boag's final legacy is a gift to the Labour Government that is likely to keep on giving.

- Mike Williams grew up in Hawke's Bay. He is CEO of the NZ Howard League and a former Labour Party president.