Todd Muller and the strange tale of the Leader’s Safe

Written By: - Date published: 8:45 am, June 19th, 2020 - 22 comments
Categories: national, spin, the praiseworthy and the pitiful, todd muller, you couldn't make this shit up - Tags:

Gee those National dissidents know how to leak.

The Herald has run this interesting story about how Todd Muller’s office had to get a safe cracker to open a safe previously used by Simon Bridges.

From David Fisher at the Herald:

When Todd Muller took over as leader of the National Party, his staff couldn’t access the secure safe in the Leader of the Opposition’s office.

Muller’s office has confirmed to the Herald that they turned to a safe cracker to bust it open.

It has now emerged that cracking open the safe – and replacing it with an undamaged safe – was unnecessary because Muller’s office had the combination all along.

Muller was asked to comment and gave a really weird response, as if he was trying to deny what had happened even though he knew it had but he did not want to tell a lie.

The Herald contacted Muller to ask about issues with accessing the safe. He said: “I’m not visible to details like that.”

Told the chain of events and asked if they were familiar, he said: “That wouldn’t particularly surprise me that it’s not familiar to me.” Muller then said he needed to go to take another call.

Since then, Muller’s chief media adviser Janet Wilson has confirmed the chain of events.

And it appears they tried to blame Bridges’ staff.  Which led to this rather terse response from Bridges’ former chief of staff Jamie Gray:

Gray rejected any suggestion Muller’s office did not have the codes to the safe. He said he had personally provided the codes to an individual working in Muller’s office.

He said he had been asked for the codes on May 28 – during Muller’s first full week in the job – and provided the codes the following day.

“I reject any claim that I withheld the codes to the safe in the leader’s office.”

What is interesting is that this story has surfaced during a week when Muller and National have actually done quite well. The National caucus is clearly not a happy place right now.

22 comments on “Todd Muller and the strange tale of the Leader’s Safe ”

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  1. Sanctuary 1
    19 June 2020 at 8:48 am

    Let me guess, he found a meat pie and a stick mag?

    • Incognito 1.1
      19 June 2020 at 8:52 am

      There’s a Moderation note for you in OM. Please respond to it or face a ban, thanks.

  2. Tricledrown 2
    19 June 2020 at 8:54 am

    Nationals Safe pair of hands myth busted sounds like Bill English's $1.2 billion cockup by not signing the insurance cover for banks even though it had been sitting on his desk for 6 weeks.

  3. Tiger Mountain 3
    19 June 2020 at 9:36 am

    Sounds like a passive aggressive, slightly delayed code handover by the vanquished ex Bridges staff member.

    What was in the safe might we speculate? Piles of banknotes, IOUs, a “go bag”?

    • bwaghorn 3.1
      19 June 2020 at 11:47 am

      Half a dozen dusty hays and instructions on which one should be worn depending on the lies one is telling.

      • Andre 3.1.1
        19 June 2020 at 12:38 pm

        "Hays"? Or hats? Or is that some other rural thing that needs to be explained to us townies?

        • bwaghorn 3.1.1.1
          19 June 2020 at 4:37 pm

          Fuck ,not sure what to blame, fat fingers or that little bastard that does my spell checking . Ruined what I like to think was a good joke .

          Definatly hat.

          • Andre 3.1.1.1.1
            19 June 2020 at 4:44 pm

            When you find that little spell check bastard, give him a kick from me too.

            • Macro 3.1.1.1.1.1
              19 June 2020 at 5:02 pm

              Yeah – it needs a good kicking. Have you watched the movie "Official Secrets" Which tells the true story of Katherine Gun .

              One day in 2003, in the lead up to the Iraq War, British intelligence specialist Katharine Gun receives a memo from the NSA with a shocking directive: the United States is enlisting Britain's help in collecting compromising information on U.N. Security Council members to blackmail them into voting in favor of an invasion of Iraq. Unable to stand by and watch the world be rushed into war, Gun makes the gut-wrenching decision to defy her government and leak the memo to the press.

              She arranged for the memo to be transferred to a reliable journalist at the Observer which subsequently published the memo – but a junior staffer put the memo through a spell checker before publishing, which of course changed the american spellings to english spellings. The officials were then able to say that the memo was a fake. Thereby reducing the effect of the warning. Probably the most tragic outcome of officious spell checking ever.

              • Andre …
                19 June 2020 at 5:50 pm

                I doubt it could possibly have made a significant difference. They were going to have their war no matter what.

    • Cinny 3.2
      19 June 2020 at 12:34 pm

      Contact numbers for the CCP?

    • Tricledrown 3.3
      19 June 2020 at 6:20 pm

      Donations from CCP

  4. Robert Guyton 4
    19 June 2020 at 12:59 pm

    Now we know why we haven't seen hide nor hair of Luxton lately!

  5. Treetop 5
    19 June 2020 at 12:59 pm

    Replacing the safe tells me a lot. As for who has the combination to the replacement safe would tell me more. I would like to know what Muller would put in his safe.

    • Adrian 5.1
      19 June 2020 at 2:29 pm

      We may be paying out for a lot of safes for the Nats if every new leader wants his own one.

      • Treetop 5.1.1
        19 June 2020 at 3:56 pm

        Maybe a bank fault could be next. I really did not think safes were used any more.

        I would like to know who still has a safe and how it is installed.

        The article does not say if the wall needed to be repaired.

  6. Andre 6
    19 June 2020 at 2:37 pm

    Looking at the photo, I'm wondering if his MAGA hat came with instructions from his hero on how to tie a tie too long.

  7. observer 7
    19 June 2020 at 2:43 pm

    To be fair, he's right, he isn't "visible". I like this honesty.

  8. Nick 8
    19 June 2020 at 3:42 pm

    Toddy should write the combination on the front of the safe so he doesn't forget it. His birthdate is a good password, so if the marker pen rubs off, someone in his team will be able to crack the safe.

  10. Malcolm Yeates 10
    19 June 2020 at 5:43 pm

    Told the chain of events and asked if they were familiar, he said: “That wouldn’t particularly surprise me that it’s not familiar to me.” Muller then said he needed to go to take another call. Sweet Jesus; the halitosis of stale corporate talk

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