The Hager story implodes even more
I wasn’t going to blog again on the Hager book as it was already clear he had so many things absolutely wrong. But three more things today are too noteworthy to pass by.
1)
Nick Mowbray has denied absolutely that he has ever donated to the Taxpayers’ Union or been inside their office – claims Hager reported as fact. The irony is that Mowbray has now donated to the Taxpayers Union as he is so outraged by the lies in Hager’s book about him. Hager may prove to be the best fundraiser the Taxpayers’s Union has ever had!
2) In the book Hager wrote:
The TU board has paid out money to deal with… at least one sexual harassment case against Williams.
So the book was crystal clear. The Board paid out money to settle a sexual harassment case against Williams.
The TU Chair has stated that she has consulted the two immediate past chairs and board members during the entire tenure of the organisation and that no one has any knowledge of any complaint, let alone a payment.
So what did Hager say on Ryan Bridge this morning:
I wouldn’t make an allegation like that, which is actually only one one line of a book. I wouldn’t make an allegation like that without having very solid information. In this case, it was two separate sources who knew about what had happened. They also knew that that had been very carefully hidden, hidden even from members of their own board, because they didn’t want the the settlement to be known about.
So the book claims the board paid out the money, and having had that refuted, he now claims it was a secret payout hidden from the board!!!
There is no capacity for a secret payout. A minimum of two directors are needed to authorise all payments from the bank account.
3) As I blogged earlier Hager claimed I broke the law and provided a National Party database to the TU for use in a direct mail campaign in 2020. I am outraged that such a serious allegation with no substance was included in the book. The TU has searched its records and found the invoice from the commercial company they purchased direct mail records from.
How anyone can take the book seriously is beyond me.