For much of this week, the media has been dominated by the release of a new book by investigative journalist Nicky Hager. Hager alleges in Dirty Politics that senior National Party members and staff were involved in feeding potentially damaging information on political opponents to right-wing bloggers.
The book, mostly informed by emails obtained through hacking, focuses on the internal communications between Whale Oil blogger Cameron Slater, poller and political commentator David Farrar, and National Party figures including senior ministers and John Key’s own staff.
We asked people on Wellington’s waterfront their thoughts on Hager’s book, and if the allegations in it might affect how they vote.
Mr Hager told Radio New Zealand's Morning Report he was considering releasing original documents that backed up claims made in his book currently under dispute, and denied breaking the law, saying the emails were leaked to him and he had nothing to do with the hacking itself.
Blogger Cameron Slater has dismissed the allegations, saying Hager “writes works of fiction regularly”.
Speaking yesterday to Radio Live from South Korea, where he was en route to Israel, he said the author had been very selective. “I have sources across the political spectrum and outside of politics as well and Nicky has selectively chosen ones that are damaging to the National Party and hasn't published anything that might be damaging to the Labour Party.”
The Prime Minister says he is happy for police to investigate the claims in the book, and told reporters in Dunedin that Hager was “one of life’s great conspiracy theorists”, who was “making stuff up.”
Dirty Politics, the emoji edition Photo: Elle Hunt / The Wireless
Radio New Zealand’s political editor Brent Edwards writes that the emails cited in the book reveal that Slater and Key’s staffer Jason Ede worked closely in accessing the Labour Party's websites, which included lists of the party’s donors and supporters.
“Some people might view this as politics as usual. They will also argue – correctly – that all parties engage in attack politics to some degree or other,” Edwards writes. “Watch National distance itself from Mr Slater as it tries to minimise the damage Mr Hager's revelations might do. While the book is not likely to be some kind of circuit breaker those on the centre-left might be looking for, it certainly adds spice to the next five weeks of the election campaign.”
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Cover photo: Diego Opatowski / Radio New Zealand.