Infection spreads to Nat’s front bench

As a veteran public relations consultant, Michelle Boag is supposed to specialise in enhancing reputations, not destroying them.

There will be many hundreds if not thousands of satisfied clients she has dealt with over the years including many charities. But her life's work, her own reputation, and that of the National Party to which she has been so attached, is in tatters through her own deviousness.

She may have thought she had contained the immediate crisis on Tuesday once it became known that she was the source of the patient details given to the hapless CluthaSouthland MP Hamish Walker which she received as acting CEO of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust. The political infection has now spread to National's front bench.

Health spokesman Michael Woodhouse confessed yesterday he was sent similar information back in June and Boag has left the party which she has thrown into crisis.

Woodhouse was not stupid enough to pass on the information to the media and so will almost certainly survive.

But his reputation is tarnished. He received four unsolicited emails from Boag but did nothing to stop them.

He could have easily contacted her to say it is highly inappropriate to be sending such information in any capacity.

He deleted them only on Tuesday night, and told Muller about it then – after having had him visit Dunedin earlier in the day.

He put out a statement on Saturday slamming the Government for the privacy breach, having suspected that Boag was actually the original source.