MSD employee ‘possibly’ behind Peters pension overpayment leak

A Ministry of Social Development (MSD) employee seeing a document at the printer could have led to Winston Peters’ pension overpayment leak, a court has heard.

At the High Court in Auckland, Peters, the Deputy Prime Minister, is suing former National ministers

Anne Tolley and Paula Bennett, the Attorney-general on behalf of MSD, the ministry’s former chief executive and the State Services Commissioner.

His case alleges a breach of his privacy in the leaking in 2017 of his seven-year national superannuation overpayment by an unknown source to the media, weeks out from the election. Yesterday, the Crown’s Victoria Casey QC called as a witness Debbie Raines, a national manager at MSD.

Raines told the court that she investigated whether any MSD staff had leaked his private information.

She concluded ‘‘only staff that had a business purpose’’ had accessed Peters’ records in the ministry’s database.

She also looked at all communications between MSD employees and the media, and ‘‘didn’t identify anything of concern’’.

Peters’ lawyer Brian Henry then cross-examined the witness.

Henry put it to Raines that the overpaymentmust have reached the media through the MSD staff Raines identified as having the information, or the two National ministers who were briefed about it, Tolley and Bennett. ‘‘Possibly,’’ said Raines. ‘‘Well, if it didn’t come from that group, which is MSD staff and the two ministers, where could it have come from?’’ asked Henry.

‘‘I guess to speculate, somebody could have heard a conversation, they could have picked up a piece of paper from a printer,’’ said Raines.

‘‘While it’s a possibility it’s from that group, there’s also the possibility someone else accessed the information,’’ she said.

The hearing continues.