No winners in ‘leaked’ Budget blunder
Simon Bridges looked a little like Jack, returning from the beanstalk with a golden goose under his arm, when he announced the National Party had obtained “leaked” details of this week’s Wellbeing Budget.
Bridges sought to use the figures he’d obtained to highlight what he claimed was a substantial increase in defence and forestry spending and a relatively small $744 million package for district health board funding.
Outlaying “$1.3 billion for the purchase of assets in Vote Defence Force in 2019/2020, up from $641 million last year . . . has nothing to do with the Government’s wellbeing priorities”, said Bridges.
“It shows the Prime Minister has yet again had to throw her principles out the window to buy off Winston.”
For all of a few minutes, it looked like Bridges had scored a coup de grace over the Government — announcing the leak at the very moment the Labour Caucus was sitting down to discuss the important messages it wanted to push on the Budget. What a ruckus that planning meeting must have turned into.
Obvious questions soon arose, however. How had National obtained the supposedly secret details? Why had Bridges decided to release it, instead of simply notifying all who needed to know, including the public, that a breach of confidential information had occurred?
Pressed to explain, Bridges could only offer his party had “put together what we have from the information to protect how and what information we have”.
Treasury was approached for comment and quickly took a superior line. Secretary to the Treasury Gabriel Makhlouf initially prevaricated: “Right now we’re conducting our own review of these reports and the information that has been published.”
Robertson and his leader Jacinda Ardern looked increasingly uncomfortable while claiming the leaked information wasn’t in Robertson’s book with the smiling mum and child pictured on the cover. It was clear to most observers the numbers were genuine.
Makhlouf, soon to depart for a post in Ireland, upped the ante and declared: “The Treasury has referred the matter to the police on the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre. The Treasury takes the security of all the information it holds extremely seriously.”
It was all looking very grim for any culprit, should they be found — right up until police promptly announced no crime had been committed.
As we now know, the information was pre-loaded on the Treasury website but supposedly hidden from open view. Some giant-slayers had simply entered keywords in the Treasury site search panel to see previews of some of these pages in a step known as “Google dorking”.
Budgets are one of the most galling
It was all looking very grim for any culprit, should they be found — right up until police promptly announced no crime had been committed.
situations for an Opposition party to endure — watching the baubles go to causes an Opposition party is often diametrically opposed to. They sit and watch while the Finance Minister and his cronies hold court, divvy up the dosh, gloat and swagger from the lock-up.
In the end, Treasury was dorked; Bridges gave too many critics the impression he would kick the Government by any means fair or foul, and the Government looked idiotic for denying what was patently true.
That no one will be held to account after all this bungling and braggadocio is a fairy-tale ending indeed. They all glibbed happily ever after.