Kiwiblog

I’m reluctant to politicise the alcohol theft issue, because while it is Labour this time which has the stupid staff members, there have been plenty of stupidities done over the years by staff from all parties – including myself! Of course theft is at the more serious end of the scale.

But I find myself slightly annoyed by Phil Goff’s response. Now generally I think Goff is making good judgement and calls, but Stuff quote him:

Labour leader Phil Goff said the staffers’ actions were “totally unacceptable”.

“I deeply regret that that action was taken. It is perhaps a message for young people at Christmas functions – watch how much you drink and remember you will be accountable for your actions afterwards.”

Umm, I hope Phil is not suggesting all young people steal things when they have had a few drinks.

And I am not even sure blaming what happened on alcohol is a good idea. They were loading the wine into a car. So either one of them were sober enough to drive, or they were also going to be drink driving.

Phil also said:

Mr Goff said he did not know the individuals personally.

But the Herald reports:

Aidan Smith was arrested after allegedly being caught taking the wine to a car outside Wednesday night’s party, which was attended by Prime Minister John Key and a collection of other ministers and senior MPs.

Smith was still working as Labour MP Pete Hodgson’s assistant yesterday. He is due to leave that role soon to work for the party’s finance spokesman, David Cunliffe. He has previously worked in the party’s research unit.

He is listed as working in the Research Unit, which is part of Phil Goff’s leader’s office. Now one must take Mr Goff at his word that he has never met Smith, but all I can say is that in my experience it would be very very rare for an Opposition Leader not to know all of his office staff. In fact often they will know most of the MPs secretaries also. Its unclear whether he was Hodgson’s secretary, or a researcher working for Hodgson (which makes him part of the Leader’s Office).

As to the four involved, I had a degree of sympathy initally based on an assumption it was an opportunistic fit if stupidity. You’re the last people at a party and there is a box of wine, and you think hey it is paid for anyway, we could have drink it anyway, and hate it to go to waste. Now don’t get me wrong – that is still wrong, but I can understand with some empathy how that may happen. But according to the Herald it was very calculated:

A group of up to four people, also believed to be Labour staffers, were seen acting suspiciously as they came in and out of the party, which was held in Parliament’s Doidge room and spilled into the area outside.

Press Gallery chair Vernon Small of the Dominion-Post and deputy chair Jane Patterson say they tracked Smith to the carpark.

It is believed that the group of four were taking full bottles of wine from the bar then smuggling them individually out the gate and up to the car.

A partygoer claims to have seen one making fake phone calls as an excuse to go in and out of the party.

If this is correct, that is pretty inexcusable. Now it is possible the accussed denies the events, so I won’t comment further than this for reasons of natural justice. But if the above account is accurate, that makes it very serious.

Stealing is stupid. Stealing from journalists is even more stupid. Stealing alcohol from journalists is terminally stupid.

NZPA report:

Wellington, Dec 18 NZPA – Up to four Labour Party staffers face the sack after they were allegedly caught stealing alcohol from a parliamentary Christmas function.

Police were called to Parliament in the early hours of today after the four people were seen loading surplus alcohol from the Press Gallery Christmas party into a car on the precinct.

One of the men was detained and arrested at the scene, allegedly with over $400 worth of wine in his car. He has been charged with theft.

The man’s accomplices escaped, but NZPA understands security footage shows four people were involved in the alleged theft — all of them junior Labour Party staffers.

$400 worth of wine is probably around three dozen bottles or so. Apart from the fact it is wrong, and also an abuse of the hospitality of the galley – it is also stupid considering the number of security cameras and guards around the place.

I left around 1 am and it was still going strong. I’m curious as to what time the alleged theft took occurred.

Goff will be ropeable. They will either be MPs secretaries or members of Goff’s personal office.

Labour leader Phil Goff said the staffers’ actions were “totally unacceptable”.

“I deeply regret that that action was taken. It is perhaps a message for young people at Christmas functions — watch how much you drink and remember you will be accountable for your actions afterwards.”

Mr Goff said he did not know the individuals personally.

In which case my assumption is they are secretaries/EAs – probably for new MPs. Their MPs will be very upset that their first staffing decision has blown up in their face.

UPDATE: Despite Goff saying he does not know any of them, they may actually be from his office, not MPs Secretaries. Not that I met everyone there last night, but there were not a lot of secretaries there.

Nicky Hager claims the Police said the following:

“The Police had to address issues of ‘theft’ and ’stealing’ because that is what Don Brash alleged. But in today’s finding the Police are saying they have no idea how the leaks occurred and that they have found no evidence of any crime being committed.”

 ”This was always going to be the outcome because the information came from legitimate leaks. I believe the National Party used the allegations of theft, and thereby wasted Police resources, to try to distract attention away from the serious revelations in the book.”

Nicky would have you think hey the Police said no crime here, move along. But let us look at what they did say:

Police have closed their investigation into the theft of e-mails from former National Party leader Dr Don Brash and have announced that they have been unsuccessful in identifying those responsible for the thefts.

Hmmn, they called them thefts. Not leaks.

Detective Inspector Harry Quinn, the Officer in Charge of the investigation and Wellington Police District Crime Services Manager, said today that police had been unable to establish with certainty how the e-mails had actually been stolen.

And here they say the e-mails were stolen – they just don’t know how.

“How the thefts occurred still largely remains a mystery,” said Detective Inspector Quinn. “We have eliminated the suggestion that an external ‘computer hacker’ had breached the computer security within Parliament but there remains many other potential ways in which the crimes could have occurred.”

Again they repeat this was a theft, and all they rule out is an “external” hacker. This does not rule out numerous other scenarios such as a IT staffer with system access, an insecure password, or even someone taking advantage of a computer left logged in.

“There are strong indications that the e-mails were in printed form at the time of the theft, but with the thefts perhaps happening at any time over the two- year period it is very likely that they were stolen during several incidents,” Detective Inspector Quinn said.

I have no idea if the thefts were done of print outs, of electronic files or a mixture of both. But I would point out that someone sneaking into someone’s office, rummaging through their filing cabinet, and then taking papers from that filing cabinet is not a leak, but as the Police say – theft.

A leak is when you release information you legitimately have access to. Take for example the draft Green Party List that was leaked to me. A Green Party member who legitimately had a copy of the list, leaked it. Now that is massively different to a scenario where say only two people had a copy of the Green Party List and it was stored in Jeanette Fitzsimons’ office, and someone entered that office without authorisation, rummaged through her laptop or office files, and then stole a copy of the list, to give it to me.