Brash castigates police over 'very casual' probe

Nicky Hager (right) used the emails in his 2006 book The Hollow Men. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Don Brash says the police report into its investigation over his stolen emails is so heavily censored it reinforces his view that police treated the inquiry "very, very casually".

Dr Brash, the former leader of the National Party, received the report last Friday and gave a copy to the Herald yesterday. Police are expected to release it officially this week.

Police stopped working on the case in April last year after drawing a blank on how the emails Nicky Hager used in his 2006 book The Hollow Men were obtained.

The report shows police considered the crime was either accessing a computer system for dishonest purpose - which carries a maximum seven-year prison sentence - or "simple theft" if only hard copies of the correspondence were obtained.

Police also did a security audit of Parliament's computer system and security practices and looked at other possible ways the emails could have been accessed. All details were censored - including three pages on the investigation of Parliament's computer system and nearly five pages on other means of access to the emails.

It said none of the information released from the emails would fall under the definition of material relevant to national or government security. While some of the people known to have copies of emails had agreed to be interviewed, all details about those interviews were blanked out.

They included NZ First leader Winston Peters, who raised the emails in Parliament, Labour MP Clayton Cosgrove, who quoted from an email in Parliament, and TVNZ political editor Guyon Espiner. Two other media outlets were mentioned - at least one of which refused to be interviewed.

It listed Hager - who used about 475 emails in his book, as well as references to Dr Brash's appointments diary and National Party board meeting minutes - as a potential interview subject but the remainder of that entry is deleted.

Hager has consistently stated his information was from concerned National Party insiders who were authorised to access the information. He has refused to give any information that might lead to their identity being discovered.

Yesterday, Dr Brash said police also sent him about 2000 pages from the investigation which largely consisted of newspaper clippings and transcripts from media interviews.

"So it won't contain any sexy new revelations. It doesn't shed any light at all on who the guilty party or parties actually are. It's censored so heavily you really can't tell what they learned."

He said it had reinforced his opinion that the police treated the inquiry "very, very casually", taking almost a year to interview key people.

A spokesman for NZ Police said any censorship of the report was justified under the provisions of the Official Information Act. He said the investigation was no longer active, and would not be reopened unless new information came to light.

"There's been none of that, which is why we're releasing the report."

Prime Minister John Key said yesterday he had not seen the report.

He continued to reject any suggestion the leaks were from National insiders, saying he could see no motive for them to do so.

On breakfast television, he said it had highlighted the lack of security around the information in the office of the Leader of the Opposition, which was now much tighter.

Police began the investigation on September 28, 2006, and the report notes Dr Brash had waited a year to lodge a complaint. He chose instead to use private investigators to try to find the culprit, unsuccessfully.

It followed ongoing references to the emails in the media and in Parliament. It says Dr Brash confirmed the contents of emails were correct to the media, "causing some political consternation to himself and his party". Dr Brash has previously criticised police over the pace of the investigation.