The police file relating to the investigation into Todd Barclay has been released and it appears that he may have been less than forthcoming in helping the police with their investigation into his actions involving a recording device that may have been placed secretly in his electorate office. I blogged about the details here when Todd’s problems first arose.
A police inquiry was conducted and Todd, for an as yet unexplained reason, chose to be completely unresponsive to requests from the police for the chance for a talk about what happened.
From David Fisher at the Herald:
National MP Todd Barclay refused to cooperate with detectives carrying out an investigation into allegations he had secretly recorded staff in his electorate office, according to documents released from the official police investigation.
Instead, Barclay did not return phone messages left for him by lead detective on the inquiry and had a lawyer contact police to say he would not be making a statement.
Barclay had earlier told the Otago Daily Times: “If they do contact me on any matter, then I will co-operate fully.”
The police investigation was into whether Barclay had breached a section of the Crimes Act around “use of interception devices”.
The NZ Herald approached Barclay for comment today and he declined.
It appears that as far as Todd is concerned “co-operate fully” means say nothing.
The background is a troubling relationship that Barclay had with a former Parliamentary Staffer who worked in his electorate office. Her belief in what Barclay did set out in the latest article.
The inquiry began with a complaint to police by his electorate agent Glenys Dickson, who had worked for English for 17 years. Electorate agents are employed by Parliamentary Services but work closely with MPs and often act on the MP’s behalf during a politician’s absence.
On February 29 2016, Dickson told a detective sergeant at Gore police station she had been asked to stand down as manager despite a positive performance appraisal. At the same time, she had heard discussion in the community about a “breach of confidentiality”.
She contacted an employment lawyer and said she was told it was a case of “unfair dismissal”.
The lawyer then approached Parliamentary Services to put forward conditions around leaving the job and severance pay.
“They also told her about the recordings that Todd had,” she said to police. The lawyer contacted Parliamentary Services for further discussions and was told it had changed position on her exit and her initial offer had been accepted.
“It seemed strange they had changed their decision so quickly within a day,” she said.
“I have real concerns some of my private conversations have been listened to and recorded. My expectation is that I would have been able to make private and personal calls from my office without them being listened to.
I guess that National will be pleased that one of its MPs has avoided the possibility of a trial and conviction. But this cannot be the higher standards that John Key talked about when National gained power.
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