Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has doubled down on his decision to go against official advice and share private information about New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Bellis' situation was publicised after she became stuck in Afghanistan earlier this year after being denied an MIQ spot to come home while pregnant.
At the time Hipkins said she was offered consular assistance twice but had not responded. Bellis insists the information is wrong.
Now it has been revealed in Parliament that Foreign Affairs officials gave Hipkins the details but told him they should not be shared publicly.
While it is clear officials gave Hipkins' the information about Bellis, it's still not known if the minister asked for it or whether it was proactively handed over.
National Party Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop tried to find out during Question Time, but had no luck.
The minister remained unapologetic, citing privacy when asked if he would apologise.
Bishop said that was ironic.
"He now won't say anything about it publicly and won't even answer questions about it because he says he doesn't want to breach privacy again. So having done it once and breach Charlotte Bellis' privacy without her permission, he is now relying on the very rights he breached in the first place."
Although not prepared to say sorry, Hipkins did extend an olive branch to Bellis.
"I would certainly be willing to have a conversation with her, that's completely over to her to get in touch if she wanted to do that," he said.
Bellis' lawyer Tudor Clee said they were open to speaking with Hipkins, but the minister needed to set the record straight.
"He needs to make it clear to the hundreds if not thousands of people in the public who heard that statement and took it to mean that Bellis was entitled, that she had ignored previous support and simply wanted everything in her own terms.
"It is the public that needs to be told that that statement was not untrue," he said.
Clee had attempted to get the Foreign Affairs information about his client, but the request was rejected.
"We have actually asked Minister Hipkins what the information was from MFAT and a few days ago we were given a letter that he wouldn't even tell Ms Bellis what the information he received was from MFAT," he said.
That letter provided to RNZ said the lawyer's Official Information Act request was declined on the basis of protecting the confidentiality of advice to ministers and officials.