By Bernard Hickey
Inland Revenue Minister Peter Dunne has resigned as a minister after an investigation into the leaking of a GCSB report found he had 86 email exchanges with Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance in the 13 days before the leak was published in the Dominion Post, including many that discussed the report.
Dunne refused to give the investigator David Henry access to all the text in the 86 exchanges and resigned after Prime Minister John Key demanded he hand over the emails or resign.
Dunne has denied leaking the report to Vance and has denied any inappropriate relationship with the journalist, but has said he thought about leaking the report and that the emails disclosed information inappropriately and were "irrational and inexplicable".
Prime Minister John Key announced the resignation in a Friday afternoon news conference, saying he asked Dunne to resign after he would not release all the 86 emails to investigator David Henry to back his claim he did not leak the report.
Dunne said in a later press conference he had considered leaking the report to Vance, but decided against it. He also denied meeting Vance the day before the newspaper published an article on the leaked report, despite an email showing Vance telling Dunne she was ready for a meeting over coffee and despite Dunne saying he left his office for the meeting but was waylaid by others and never made the meeting.
Despite the shock resignation, Key said Dunne had pledged his continued support in parliament for the government on confidence and supply and that an early election was not more likely.
Key said he would continue to be able to govern with 63 votes in the 121 seat parliament, given National's 59 seats and four votes from ACT (1) the Maori party (3) remained in place. Finance Minister Bill English would become acting finance minister.
"When I announced the terms of reference for the inquiry I made it very clear that I expected all Ministers and their staff to fully cooperate," Key said.
"In this situation, a sensitive government government was leaked to a reporter and that is a very serious matter. The report shows that Mr Dunne has not met all of the requests for information from the inquiry. I am extremely disappointed with what has taken place," Key said.
"I expect my ministers to always uphold the highest standards, and to be held to account for their actions," he said. "I have met with Mr Dunne to discuss the matter. He has advised me that he remains unable to fully meet the inquiry's requests, and accordingly, he offered, and I have accepted his resignation as a Minister."
Key said Henry had not been able to rule out Dunne leaking the report.
Key said Dunne had declined to give Henry email records and Key had asked for his resignation after Dunne declined again to release the records.
3News journalist Patrick Gower asked both Key and Dunne in the Friday afternoon news conferences if Dunne had become "besotted" with Vance. Dunne denied any infatuation and said his relationship with her was professional. Key said Dunne had denied any inappropriate relationship with Vance in a Wednesday evening meeting with Key.
Key said he was shocked and shaken by the detail in the report and could not explain Dunne's actions.
Dunne news conference
A clearly shaken Dunne spoke for around 30 minutes at a news conference on Friday afternoon, admitting he had acted inappropriately in discussing the report with Vance.
He even detailed how he had arranged to meet her on one morning, but had eventually stood her up after meeting others on the way. The Henry report showed Dunne and Vance had 64 email exchanges while Dunne was overseas on holiday between March 30 and April 7 in America with his wife.
"I cannot reasonably or rationally explain my actions," Dunne said.
“While I did not leak the report, and challenge Fairfax to confirm that, some of my actions after I received an advance copy of the report were extremely unwise and lacked the judgement reasonably expected of a Minister in such circumstances," he told the conference, adding he had accepted responsibility for that and had resigned because of that.
“The sole reason why I did not disclose the full content of my emails was because of my strong belief that citizens, be they constituents, members of the public or journalists, ought to be able to communicate with their elected representatives in confidence if they wish, and we tamper with that right at our collective peril," he said.
“However, be all that as it may, I acknowledge that I have not lived up to the high professional standards I have always set myself as a Minister. I have therefore concluded that I cannot continue to function effectively in these circumstances, given the lapses of judgement I have shown. The honourable course for me to follow now is to offer my resignation as a Minister."
Dunne went on to say the last two days had been the "nastiest" of his political life and he now wanted to spend time with his family.
“The last few days have been especially difficult for my wife and family, whose support throughout I acknowledge with huge gratitude; for my staff, whose careers will be affected, for my friends, and colleagues in the UnitedFuture Party."
Dunne said he had not decided whether to run again as a candidate in the Ohariu electorate, but would continue as its MP for now. His party, UnitedFuture, was deregistered last week as a party after it disclosed it was not confident of having the required minimum of 500 members.
“My focus from now will be on representing my Ōhariu constituents and rebuilding my party, UnitedFuture," Dunne said. “For my family’s sake, I request that our privacy be respected at this difficult time.”
Political reaction
Labour Leader David Shearer said Key had put the survival of his "increasingly unstable government ahead of getting to the bottom of who leaked a sensitive report on our national security."
Shearer said Key should have put Dunne under oath.
“New Zealanders deserve to know the truth. It may be that this is a criminal matter, and it could end up being the police who do Mr Key’s work for him," Shearer said. “Peter Dunne appears to have misled the New Zealand public and if cannot be upfront with the public he must resign from Parliament," he said.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said the Police should be called in to investigate the leak of the report as a criminal matter.
“The Prime Minister fails to understand the importance of maintaining the integrity of New Zealand’s security system in a world hit by increasing intelligence theft and terrorism," Peters said. “Mr Key overlooked his international obligations and has treated a serious breach of security in a cavalier manner. Police should have been called in from the outset," he sid.
The Green Party said the National Government was unstable and unethical and relied on the vote of disgraced MPs.
“Legislation such as to enable the SkyCity deal now depend on the vote of disgraced ex-minister Peter Dunne and John Banks who is facing court charges. Like the last days of the Shipley Government, John Key is having to cobble together a coalition of the disgraced," Green co-leader Russel Norman said.
“The police are likely to investigate this case, but in the meantime John Key has serious questions to answer about whether Mr Dunne’s actions compromised New Zealand security or defence," he said.
The Henry report
The 17 page report by Henry into the leak of the Kitteridge report on the GCSB was focused on a Fairfax article published on April 9 titled "Secret report unveils extensive illegal spying", which included details from a final version of the report dated March 22. He said it was most likely Vance had "gained access" to the report on Monday April 8.
Henry said he had identified only three people with access to the report over that time period who had contact with Vance. Two were public servants and had not leaked the report.
The third person was Dunne, who denied Henry access to the content of 86 email exchanges between Dunne and Vance between March 27 and April 9.
Dunne showed Henry the edited text of 41 of the 44 emails he sent to Vance during that period, including one sent by Vance to Dunne at 11.38 am on April 8 saying Vance was waiting to meet Dunne for coffee.
Dunne confirmed to Henry he was due to meet Vance on April 8, but did not meet her. Dunne left Bowen House at 11.35 am and did not return until 12.27pm, Henry said.
"He advises me that he did not in fact meet the reporter that day. He has also advised me that he did not give the reporter access to the Kitteridge report," Henry said.
(Updated with attached report and details from press conferences, reaction from political parties, details from report)
22 Comments
Assuming the only reasonable conclusion you can reach from this report is that he did leak it, has Mr Dunne committed a criminal act by leaking this document; or would it just be considered poor form?
Did he state in Parliament that he did not leak the report? If so, has he misled Parliament?
Does the answer to either of the above questions mean he has to/should resign from Parliament?
Would National lose their majority on say asset sales at least, without his support?
Just a few questions that come to mind.
“The party has in the past week had a substantial boost in membership, which clearly demonstrates public support for and belief in the need for a Liberal Democratic party. A lot of this support is coming from within Mr Dunne’s Ōhariu electorate.”
And UnitedFuture still hasn't got 500 members. Which suggests that a week ago it was a long way short.
Holes, digging, stop?
Quite frankly, if it was Peter Dunne who leaked the report that let Nzers know the GCSB had been illegally spying on them, then good on him (though prehaps he should have resigned at the time). As I citizen, I very much want to know if the spy agencies are overstepping the mark.
Was the document Dunne corresponded with a reporter on actually classified 'top secret'? I once had a security clearance and was in no doubt that any breach would be grounds for immediate dismissal and referral to the police, I assume, in the first instance. It beggars belief that he's still an MP if indeed the document had a security clearance classification of 'top secret'. I somehow doubt that given he's still an MP.
Answered my own question - it's in the Henry report - the document was classified as "sensitive" - not a national security classification.
Still stupid for a government Minister to breach such a policy and privacy classification. The report notes that if a non-elected official had committed such a breach it would constitute a breach of their employee code of conduct - likely grounds for immediate dismissal.
So, the fact that Dunne retains his job is a bit hypocritical. Key should be calling for him to resign from Parliament given a government servant could be dismissed for such an act.
I always thought Peter Dunne was a decent person, maybe a little old fashioned on family values for my liking, but trustworthty nevertheless. No doubt Winston and co will release more details in days to come and more will eventually come out. For now, the only conclusion I can reach is that he's covering up for someone else (not himself) by not releasing all the emails.
You may call me naive. In the meantime, peace and best wishes to Mr Dunne.
Given there were 86 email exchanges between he and the reporter between 27 March and 9 April (see Henry report, p. 11) .. and he was on an Easter break/holiday overseas between 30 March and 7 April .. yet the correspondences continued throughout.
Some holiday ... yet they say there is 'no rest for the wicked', eh? Or, should that be, no rest for the naive .. as I think it's more likely Mr Dunne is the naive one (or, "stupid", in his own words).
If the GCSB arguably wasn't breaking the law spying on 88 New Zealanders, then equally Dunne arguably isn't the leaker.
And Winston, why is he so sanctimonious about Dunne leaking, when he appears to have been leaked confidential information from the Henry inquiry?
Whether he holds 'decent values or not, he's done irreperable harm in his time.
He came in at a time when we had choices. A system was in place, which was unsustainable. Big banks issued 'money' out of thin air, which they 'rented' for more 'money'. That required exponential consumption of resources, but it didn't require good social outcomes, or environmental ones, just a bottom-line.
Clearly that left Govts as the social/environmental providers - but then (for lack of opportunities on a finite planet) the fiscal system had to acquire the public doman too. It was inevitable, and obvious. So too, was the next move - in that the growth system would hit the wall. You don't grow in the last doubling-time of them all - something economics teaching doesn't teach. You also, in the attempt, have to triage - roads of National Insignificance rather than child health/education, conserrvation, environmental monitoring, sustainability for instance.
Dunne chose the BAU approach, and thus was part of the problem. Who cares about the tie-up between ego and infatuation, if indeed that was the case? It's his track record is the broken record, and his epitaph.
Yep, huge damage and sells his soul for re-election....however look at the alternatives to replace him....
Katrina shanks? (very probable) a non-event and a party liner, I really wonder how they choose ppl like this. Maybe its the ability to slavishly follow the party line and not think...very likely to put foot in mouth, if she trys to think one to watch for laughs / omg moments.
Charles C (probably win one term from a split right vote then lose to the above, badly) a bit more colourful, but lacking, doesnt get the energy problem, or wont admit it, comes across as a nice big blob lacking spine....party liner.
Gareth Hughes (no chance) Gets it I think, bright but part of a minor party that seems to be selling itself for votes, which will lump it with all the others when the dis-satisfactoon boils over.....pity. Might do well in the future, suspect he could lead the Green's one day. My one hope is the Green's have a cunning plan to get enough votes to swing things in the right direction, or otherwise, its BAU by all it seems...
regards
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