National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis says the Government broke the Official Information Act by withholding an email that led to Stuart Nash's downfall on Tuesday.
Nash was fired from all of his ministerial portfolios after Prime Minister Chris Hipkins became aware of the email, where Nash revealed details of Cabinet discussions and decisions to two donors - Troy Bowker and Greg Loveridge.
The email was first discovered internally as part of an Official Information Act (OIA) request response by Newsroom but was deemed out of scope of the request.
Today, a statement from Hipkins shows the OIA requested communications between Stuart Nash and a named list of people who donated to them.
However, a Newsroom article claims that media outlet made the request, and Troy Bowker was included on the list of donors.
"Nash’s office responded, “I hold nothing that is within the scope of your request as the Act relates only to information provided to me as minister. I must therefore refuse your request... as the information does not exist or cannot be found," the Newsroom article states.
"Failing to disclose documents within the scope of a valid request without justification is a breach of the Official Information Act."
Today, National Party deputy leader Nicola Willis said they were "explosive revelations" and the request had been explicit.
"How could this letter possibly have been out of scope?
"The Prime Minister's Office actively conspired to cover up information which demonstrated serious ministerial misconduct.
"Not only did they know about Stuart Nash's letter last year, they broke the law in order to keep that letter from the New Zealand public."
"The minute the Prime Minister's Office became aware of Stuart Nash's letter, they should have released it. That they did not do so, that they broke the Official Information Act in order to cover it up, shows an arrogant, entitled government that no longer has respect for the ethics of this Parliament. It's a disgrace."
She said the Ombudsman needed to urgently investigate the "serious breach".
"The Prime Minister's Office must urgently release all documentation associated with the handling of this request."
'Unacceptable breach'
Asked if the senior staff members involved should lose their jobs, Willis said "heads have to roll here".
"This is an unacceptable breach... of the law of this country."
Hipkins' statement said an Ombudsman complaint had been laid but it was dropped as the requester chose not to pursue it.
"Two staff members in the Prime Minister’s Office, two senior advisers were aware of the original OIA.
"Only the senior adviser was aware of a subsequent complaint to the Ombudsman.
"It was not escalated to the former prime minister or the former chief of staff at any point.
"Both staff have apologised for their error of judgement in not recognising the significance of the email and escalating it at the time. Both staff still work in the Prime Minister’s office."
Hipkins said it was "not acceptable" and Nash’s email should have been raised with the prime minister at the time.
"I have made it very clear with staff that I expect matters like this to be escalated to me.
“I have accepted the apology of the staff involved and believe this was an oversight. Staff in the Prime Minister’s Office deal with large volumes of information every day and errors of judgement do occur.
“Regardless, the onus was on Stuart Nash to review his correspondence and identify this email himself.
"I asked him on two occasions to provide an assurance there were no further actions I should be aware of where he may have breached the Cabinet Manual. He had the responsibility to alert me to this email and did not.
“I have already removed Stuart Nash from Cabinet and stripped him of his Ministerial portfolios, and asked the Cabinet Office to undertake a review of his correspondence with donors to check there are no other instances like this. I await the outcome of that review.”
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