The cliche male midlife crisis entails buying a sports car, suddenly affecting demographically inappropriate clothing, and even attempting to trade in one’s spouse for a later edition. In the political male, it would seem, the middle-age wig-out is marked by temporarily mislaying one’s party, developing a powerful urge to leak to a journalist, and refusing to cooperate with an inquiry.
MPs’ falls-from-grace are typically distinguished by spectacle and farce: Chris Carter, Aaron Gilmore, David Garrett, Darren Hughes; it’s tough competition. But Peter Dunne’s is the most gobsmacking I’ve ever seen. As you can see from the footage of his press conference, he’s struggling even to explain it to himself.
In an anthropological sense, Dunne is Middle Mortgage Belt Man, who has done all things in moderation. His “Mister Sensible” tag is pretty dated now, but he has distinguished himself for the rare feat of hanging on to his Ohariu electorate in his own right, despite a waka-hopping career.
Since leaving Labour in 1995, he has enjoyed diminishing returns from his later iteration as United/United Future leader, with and without Christian and deerstalking add-ons. But Dunne has maintained a solid reputation as a competent Revenue Minister, able to work in Governments red and blue.
To witness him making an idiot of himself in this way – discussing leaking a classified document with a journalist known for getting scoops, and then refusing to disclose half of the 80-plus emails he exchanged with her – is simply staggering.
We may never know for sure whether Dunne did, even inadvertently, leak the document. He says he didn’t, and the journalist, Fairfax’s Andrea Vance, in accordance with a bedrock journalistic article of faith, is not going to say. But the fact that he refused fully to cooperate with the inquiry – the sin for which he has been forced to resign – will leave a cloud over his reputation.
It was, after all, a leak damaging to his own Government, an administration with which he has no apparent beef. On the contrary, Prime Minister John Key was shocked, saddened, and not a little inconvenienced, to have to let him go. Revenue is not an easy-to-fill portfolio.
It's hard to argue with any of what Jane Clifton has written here. When the first allegations about Peter Dunne broke, most people shook their heads in disbelief. When the extent of his e-mail communication with a journalist was revealed, that disbelief turned to a mixture of shock, awe and mirth! He's certainly been the butt of a few jokes this week.
But as Ms Clifton goes on to note, there's a degree of hypocrisy in the way that this particular leak, which has yet to be conclusively proven to have been made by Peter Dunne, has been politicised:
The affair does underline the dichotomy we in the political firmament face over the issue of leaks, though. Labour and New Zealand First are harrumphing like scandalised Wodehousian aunts about Dunne’s behaviour. Yet both have received, publicised and gloated over similarly spicey leaks in their time.
Leaks have come to the Opposition from two of the most sacred departments, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government Security Communications Bureau, at times in farcical quantity. Information from these bureaucracies have the potential to harm this country’s security and trade.
It’s a very unhealthy sign that such officials are prepared to undermine the Government by leaking information that could also undermine the welfare of the country. Yet the Opposition has trafficked in them with abandon, and never has a single Labour, Green or NZ First politician called the police about such documents, as they have done over the Dunne situation.
This is a very good point. And in fact Labour is going to considerable time and trouble to protect the identity of Person A, the public servant deemed responsible for the MFAT leak. When the identity of Person A becomes public knowledge, we suspect that Labour is going to have some significant explaining to do.
There's more to this column, including some sage comment from Jane Clifton as to why politicians and journalists need one another, and why leaks can be seen as a public service. It's well worth a read in its entirety.
Of course nothing is going to change the fact though that when this issue could have been front and centre all week, instead everyone's been talking about Labour's appalling political management. The Labour Party has only itself to blame for that, and Peter Dunne has nothing to do with it!
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