The Boagie (wo)Man

Hamish Walker's seppuku is the sort of scandal that political nerds love. It started off with criticism of one party, then blew up in another's face. And then it involved characters from a previous series.

I don't want to canvas what he's done - there are plenty of other articles for that.

Here are things I've found interesting:

Muller found out that Walker had leaked the private data of the COVID patients on Monday afternoon. He still saw fit to fire off salvos at the Government's management of the border.

He then waited until 5.30pm last night to come clean. In that time there were apparently lawyers brought in. He didn't see fit to report what happened to the Government. Last night he said he was very disappointed and would be making no further comment while the Government's investigation went on.

Then this morning after last night's response was rightfully criticised he decided that he no longer had confidence in Walker and that the National Party Board should meet to discuss his fate. I don't know why that decision wasn't made when he first learned on Monday what happened. It seems he was waiting for the reaction to gauge what his response should be.

And then we come to a question that only has two answers:

Either Muller knew in advance that Walker was the source of this data breach, in which case Muller should resign.

Or Muller didn't know that one of his backbenchers was running rogue and thought that this sort of behaviour was acceptable. 

Neither option paints Muller in a good light.

The Michelle Boag part to the storyline is the *chef's kiss* of the whole story.

Boag has a sordid history with the National Party. She was the President of National in 2002 when it recorded its woeful 20.9% vote. But it doesn't stop there.

• There were allegations that Boag was involved in the Saudi Sheep deal that Murray McCully organised that reeked of corruption.
• As Chair of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Foundation, Boag called in the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to go and collect her passport from her house when she left it there. 
• Boag was the support person of a woman who it is alleged attempted to extort ACC into giving her a two-year benefit after she was mistakenly sent private details of othe rpatients.

I had a lovely experience with Boag when she and I did the Panel together and she got angry about some footpaths. Well worth a listen.

The un-answered question in all this is how much did Muller/Kaye know? And I include Kaye in this because she has described Boag as her second mother. Boag was instrumental in helping them organise the coup against Bridges. Would Boag have done something like this without talking to Kaye about it? 

It seems unlikely.

Either way, the whole thing is completely ... shambolic.