Walker under fire
Clutha-Southland MP admits involvement Covid-19 patient leak
National MP Hamish Walker has admitted to passing on the private details of Covid-19 patients to media, which were leaked to him by former party president Michelle Boag.
Boag and Walker revealed their involvement in the leak of patient information to media last week just one day after the Government launched an inquiry into the matter, both apologising for their actions.
Walker, already under pressure over accusations of racism, said he had passed on the information ‘‘from a source’’ in his statement, noting it had not been password-protected and lashing the Government for its availability.
This source was revealed minutes later to be Boag, a former National Party president who retains close links to the party, who said she received it in her role as the acting chief executive of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter trust.
‘‘I very much regret my actions and did not anticipate that Hamish would choose to send it on to some media outlets but I am grateful that the media involved have chosen not to publish the 18 names that were contained within it,’’ Boag said in a statement.
She has resigned as acting chief executive of the trust as a result.
Privacy Commissioner John Edwards said the leak was indefensible while National leader Todd Muller described Walker’s actions as an ‘‘error in judgement.’’
Boag would not comment on why she sent the information to Walker when asked by Stuff. ‘‘It would be inappropriate for me to do that because I would be disclosing more details,’’ she said.
The twin apologies came the day after the Government launched an inquiry into the leak of the private patient information about New Zealand’s active Covid19 patients, which was sent to media on Friday.
State Services Minister Chris Hipkins appointed QC Michael Heron to head up the inquiry on
Monday, saying the leak to media outlets appeared to be deliberate and could be criminal.
HIPKINS: ‘DIRTY POLITICS’
Hipkins, speaking about the revelations yesterday, said it was disappointing to learn politicians were involved in the leak.
‘‘This is a very disappointing situation, it does have a ring of dirty politics to it, and I think that would be very sad for the forthcoming election campaign.
‘‘If a member of parliament can’t accept receiving people’s health information is something they should treat with a degree of confidence then that says quite a lot about their own levels of personal integrity and judgment.’’
He said the inquiry into the leak would continue.
MULLER: ERROR OF JUDGEMENT
Muller said Walker had made an ‘‘error of judgement’’ and stripped him of his portfolios.
‘‘I have expressed to Hamish my view that forwarding on this information was an error of judgement,’’ Muller said.
‘‘While I wait for the result of the inquiry I have transferred his Forestry, Land Information and Associate Tourism portfolio responsibilities to Ian McKelvie.’’
Walker was already in the news after being accused of racism for issuing a press release that said people from ‘‘India, Pakistan, and Korea’’ could be headed to Dunedin, Invercargill and Queenstown for quarantine. Currently, only New Zealand citizens or residents are allowed into the country.
Housing Minister Megan Woods said the comments were racist scaremongering, but Walker defended them – saying he had evidence from a source which proved the arrivals would be coming from those countries.
PRIVACY COMMISSIONER: ‘INDEFENSIBLE’
Edwards said there was no excuse for trying to put such sensitive private information into the public domain.
‘‘People are entitled to have an expectation that their health information is kept private and not widely circulated,’’ he said. ‘‘It causes anxiety to individuals, those involved, and that is unforgivable. It undermines trust and confidence in the system, and that I think also is unforgivable. And indefensible.’’
Walker said in a statement that he got the information from ‘‘a source’’ and it was not password-protected.
‘‘I have spoken to National Party Leader Todd Muller and informed him that I passed to members of the media, by email, information containing Covid-19 patient details that was given to me by a source,’’ Walker said.
‘‘I did this to expose the Government’s shortcomings so they would be rectified. It was never intended that the personal details would be made public, and they have not been, either by me or the persons I forwarded them to.
‘‘I made serious allegations against the Government’s Covid19 response and passed on this information to prove those allegations.
‘‘Private health information does not have basic safeguards in place and the Government needs to change its protocols and store the information on a secure, safe network that at a minimum requires a password.
‘‘I sincerely apologise for how I have handled this information and to the individuals impacted by this. I will be fully cooperating with the Michael Heron QC inquiry.’’
National activist Michelle Boag is openly remorseful, and Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker rather more muted in his apology – but emphatically in trouble nonetheless – as the pair now find themselves the subject of pointed inquiry after last night acknowledging their roles in passing private details of Covid-19 patients to the media.
Boag at least speaks plainly when she acknowledges ‘‘a massive error of judgment on my part’’ in sending the information sent to her, in her role with the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust, to Walker.
Let’s be plain. This was done as ammunition to be used against the Government, though by her account she didn’t anticipate Walker – sometimes described as a press release machine – quietly flicking it on to the news media.
He, in turn, points out that the private details weren’t published by him or the journalists. This does, however, leave interesting questions of legality that will now be canvassed in the inquiry already launched by Health Minister Chris Hipkins.
Walker still tries, unconvincingly, to portray his manner of playing fast and loose with deeply personal information as some sort of whistleblowing exercise to expose Government failings of not having appropriate safeguards in place. A case, essentially, of committing wrongdoings to show that it was possible.
This really is the last thing National leader Todd Muller needed, speaking as it does to the worst sort of opportunism – and ineptly handled at that.
There’s a principle known as Hanlon’s razor: Never attribute to malice anything that can be adequately explained by stupidity. When Hipkins announced the inquiry there was still a perception that the initial leak was most likely a screw-up, following which some unintended recipient may have shared the information with the media.
Hipkins wants to ensure such breaches don’t happen again. That imperative remains because privacy breaches do keep happening. We need look back no further than last year when Treasury prematurely allowed pieces of Budget information online. And when 35 people had their full details laid open from the police gun buyback database, while hundreds more may have had their names and addresses accessed. Also last year the Ministry for Culture and Heritage, sorting prospective trainees for a commemorative sailing adventure, accidentally betrayed the trust of more than 300 people who had provided passport, driving licence and birth certificate details.
The Privacy Commissioner’s 2019 report recorded 95 breaches voluntarily acknowledged by public agencies – though the Privacy Act coming into force at the end of this year will likely see a significant increase because it makes the reporting of significant breaches compulsory.
There’s cause for abiding concern about the release through malice or mishap of information that the state has a responsibility to keep private. And sure enough the Office of the Privacy Commissioner has just published a survey of nearly 1400 New Zealanders, which concluded twothirds want more privacy regulation. Most vivid in people’s thinking wasn’t Government information, but theft of banking details, security of information online, and concern about what the commercial world could do with our information. That last issue reminds us malice and ineptitude don’t explain every privacy breach. Commercial increasingly shows up. But not this time.
A case, essentially, of committing wrongdoings to show that it was possible.