Embattled Tory MP Hamish Walker has announced that he will not contest the September election for National.
Ironically, the Covid 19 privacy breacher only became an MP when the incumbent, Todd Barclay, was caught breaching privacy and was forced to stand down.
This will not be the end of the matter.
Walker and National Party insider Michelle Boag will face further investigation, likely prosecution under the Privacy Act and possible criminal charges. No wonder Walker doesn’t want to go before the election; he’ll get nearly 6 months salary by staying on until election day. That’ll help pay the legal bills and fines, I guess.
Labour’s Stuart Nash claims it’s possible other Nat MP’s knew about the leaked list of Covid victim’s names. If so, then they deserve to go as well. They had a duty to the nation to play their part; they should have immediately told the new Minister of Health or the MOH head Ashley Bloomfield what they knew, the moment they knew it.
The same applies to temporary Tory leader Todd Muller, who sat on the news that Walker and Boag were the leakers for 24 hours.
That’s cowardly at best, irresponsible at worst.
The timeline of the leak is getting more interesting. Walker issued a dog whistle statement last week claiming that up to 11,000 people from “India, Pakistan and Korea” could be going to Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown for quarantine.
That’s very specific nationalities named, suggesting he had Boag’s material a week ago.
However, it has been reported that the leaked info does not have nationalities listed, so it looks very much like Walker has inferred the ethnicity of the Covid victims from their surnames.
Remember when Labour were accused of relying on ‘Chinese sounding names’ to make a point on housing?
National were all over that with shrill cries of racism.
Now …. crickets.
Muller’s response is to freeze Walker out, claiming that the MP went rogue.
That’s bullshit.
Walker was doing what National have been doing for a decade. Dirty Politics 2.0 is still dirty politics.
If Muller had any guts, he’d disband their sleazy ‘intelligence unit’ immediately.
But he won’t, because he has no authority, no mana and no hope.
Still, it’s good that NZ voters know that, in the team of 5 million, the National Party aren’t even fit to take a place on the sub’s bench.
UPDATE: Muller speaks live on the Walker/Boag scandal. And announces that National will make it all better by, er, building a road.
Asked why he waited to out Walker and Boag, Muller says he was effectively scared off by Walker’s lawyer. Muller claims that National are the party of values and that there is no such thing as ‘dirty politics’. Refers to the disgraced MP repeatedly as ‘Hamish’.
Says, as far as he knows, Nikki Kaye was not briefed by her friend Michelle Boag. Muller apologises to NZ and claims it does not reflect badly on his leadership.
To finish, Todd reminds us that National want to build a road. Rooooads!
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