Mallard had secret leak inquiry

Speaker says he was blamed for revealing expenses

Parliament’s Speaker, Trevor Mallard, commissioned his own secret inquiry into the leak of Simon Bridges’ travel expenses after hearing that Bridges had been privately blaming the Speaker for the leak.

The inquiry by KPMG cleared him and Parliamentary Service staff who had access to the expenses document, according to a memo written by Parliamentary Service and released by Mallard last night.

It means there were two separate taxpayer-funded inquiries going on at the same time, one into the National Party MPs and staff, and one into Mallard and Parliamentary Service staff.

National commissioned its own inquiry by PwC after Mallard cancelled the official wider inquiry which was to have been conducted by former Solicitor General Michael Heron QC. The results of that inquiry are due soon although there is no guarantee that National will release its results.

Mallard cancelled the Heron inquiry after it was publicly revealed that he, Simon Bridges and Newshub had received a text from the leaker claiming to be a National MP, containing reference to matters relating to caucus meetings, and pleading for an inquiry not to be held on the grounds of mental health.

Mallard last night said he could tell from the text that was sent to him, Newshub and Simon Bridges “that it was 99.9 per cent certain that it was someone exceptionally close to National — either an MP or a staff member who could have had access to caucus things or overheard a number of conversations. But because I had been accused of being the leak, I wanted to make certain that my records were searched, which they wouldn’t be under the National Party’s [inquiry], and to make sure that the staff responsible within the Parliamentary Service and my office were properly checked as well.”

Asked who had accused him of being the leak, Mallard said Bridges had when he referred to the term “the Speaker’s office” as being one of the potential sources. “That was code for me. And he said me to numerous people privately.”

Mallard said he did not announce the private inquiry at the time because he was trying to keep the issue out of the media. “The nature of the text was that there was — there is — someone with a serious mental health issue and I just wanted to get it out of the media.” He had kept it secret from National until it was over because “if there was a problem, I wanted it dealt with”.

Mallard last night released the privacy waiver that he and relevant staff who had access to the leaked material had signed for the KPMG inquiry.

He also released the Parliamentary Service memo outlining the findings which included the following: “On the basis of this independent review, there is no evidence that staff in the Office of the Speaker, Mr Speaker, or Parliamentary Service finance and corporate staff released details of this quarterly expense disclosure report to any unauthorised parties.”

National deputy leader Paula Bennett, who is overseeing National’s leak inquiry, said that she had known about the private inquiry for several weeks after Mallard told her.