KEY POINTS:
Investigative researcher Nicky Hager has written a book based on National Party leader Don Brash's emails and other internal party correspondence, but cannot release it due to an injunction obtained by Dr Brash last week.
Mr Hager today told reporters his book was due to be released today
but had been effectively blocked, for now.
But Mr Hager outlined key parts of the book titled The Hollow Men: A Study in the Politics of Deception.
>> Audio: Investigative author Nicky Hager talks about his controversial book
>> Audio: National leader Don Brash talks about the Nicky Hager book
In notes accompanying the press conference, he said the book was an inside look at the National Party under Dr Brash's leadership and was based not only on emails to and from Dr Brash, but other internal correspondence and interviews with unhappy party members.
He said the book was not about Dr Brash's private affairs, no personal emails had been used and there was no good reason for the injunction.
On Thursday, Dr Brash was granted an interim injunction restraining anybody from putting his emails on a website, broadcasting them, handing them to someone else or revealing what is in them.
The step - rare in New Zealand - came after he was dogged for months by rumours that potentially damaging emails to and from him would be made public.
The injunction, issued by the High Court at Wellington, also requires anyone with the emails to hand them over to the court.
Releasing the book's contents page, Mr Hager said the book covered topics like political strategies behind the Orewa speech, National's links to American neo-conservatives and their input into the electoral campaign, the hidden links and influences of the industry lobby groups, National's "big donors", and the electoral strategies devised by their Australian advisers.
He also said it looked at a range of possible breaches of election finance laws and parliamentary spending rules.
He also claims to have evidence top National party figures were aware of the Exclusive Brethren's plans for an advertising campaign months before the election.
Hager said: "I believe that it is information like that explains why National is trying to block publication of the book."
He said the book did not come "from hacking into the parliamentary server or gaining access to Don Brash's computer system or something like that".
Instead, he said the "extraordinary collection of inside papers" it came from disaffected people "in or close" to the National Party.
The majority of the book was based on documents other than Dr Brash's emails.
The book was his initiative without any input from any political party.
Hager said: "I believe the injunction is aimed at suppressing unwanted news and the motivation of senior National Party people is to try and avoid accountability for their actions."
"I hope nobody takes them seriously when , because the leaks are from their own party, they suddenly argue that leaking amounts to theft."
Hager said Dr Brash's actions contradicted his party's rhetoric.
"The National Party has campaigned all year on the subject of integrity and then when information arises that questions their integrity, they have used legal devices to try and stop publication."
National frequently publicised leaked documents itself, he said.
The reason he was now publicising the book was to end the swirling mystery around the injunction "so everyone knows at least in general terms what National is trying to suppress".
Hager, an activist with links to the Greens and other left-wing causes, said he hoped to release the book properly in the near future.
The book is dedicated to "the principled conservatives of the National Party."
The book is published by Craig Potton, a former Greens candidate.
The book's foreword is by Dr Marilyn Waring, the one-time renegade National MP who famously fell out out with Rob Muldoon, sparking a snap election.
- NZHERALD STAFF
