Peters launches legal action on leak
"The most likely reason for the leak was to damage his reputation in the forthcoming general election." High Court affadavit
NZ First leader Winston Peters has delivered a legal bombshell, serving court papers on nine people including former government ministers, journalists and a government department chief executive over the leaking of details about his superannuation payments.
An affidavit shows papers have been filed in the High Court naming Ministry of Social Development chief executive Brendan Boyle, National leader Bill English and his former chief of staff Wayne Eagleson, former ministers Paula Bennett, Steven Joyce, and Anne Tolley, and journalists Lloyd Burr and Tim Murphy.
Former National Party campaign communications manager Clark Hennessy is also named. The affidavit alleges Hennessy was the most likely source of the leak.
In a statement, Hennessy said ’’I strongly deny any involvement in this matter or anything to do with Mr Peters’ personal life’’.
The affidavit, prepared by Peters’ lawyers, says he has instructed them to identify and sue the ‘‘persons responsible’’ for the leak. The affidavit was sworn in September, but the papers were only served on Tuesday, after Peters had left the country for an international summit.
The papers detail the events surrounding Peters discovering he had been overpaid his pension and that information being leaked.
The affidavit details how Peters applied for his superannuation in March 2010 in person with his partner, Jan Trotman. It outlines a timeline of meetings and discussions once an error in the amount paid was discovered. Peters repaid the amount immediately he was aware of the overpayment.
Those discussions led to a ’’no surprises’’ briefing to the then minister, Tolley, by Boyle.
‘‘The briefing, while required by the National Party government, has to the best of my knowledge no basis in law. The no surprises policy is considered by myself and counsel to be both a breach of the Privacy Act requirements and the duty of care to protect my client’s private information held by the MSD.’’
The verbal briefing was followed up with a written note.
The affidavit then refers to an approach by Newshub journalist Lloyd Burr, who ‘‘claimed to have a story leaked to him by IRD’’.
It also refers to journalist Tim Murphy boasting ‘‘the mother of all scandals’’ was about to break, and states former finance minister Stephen Joyce was heard at the National Party conference that weekend claiming that a ‘‘full load’’ story was coming out about Peters.
With that knowledge, Peters issued a pre-emptive press statement, the affidavit states.
‘‘It is clear from the media details that prior to my client being forced to issue a media statement to mitigate damage someone had leaked the details of my client’s meeting with MSD. The most likely reason for the leak was to damage his reputation in the forthcoming general election.’’
Peters’ lawyers are demanding documents from the parties named in their legal action and say it is clear from media stories that a range of people were given access to Peters’ confidential details, including political advisers.
‘‘From inquiries made by counsel I believe the ninth intended defendant (Hennessy) is the most likely person to have leaked the information to the media as part of a deliberate election campaign to damage my client’s reputation.’’
Hennessy also worked for Paula Bennett’s office in an advisory capacity.