There's a lot of unanswered questions relating to allegations against a former Prime Minister staffer.
Michael Forbes has quit as acting deputy press secretary over allegations he took compromising recordings of sex workers - and photos of women he didn't know.
A Wellington brothel complained to Police last July, who found it didn't meet the threshold for prosecution.
NZ Herald political reporter Jamie Ensor explains the implications of this saga.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks edb in Zed Herald.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Political reporter Jamie Insore is with me now.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning, Jamie, Good morning, Francisca.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Okay, so a rather bizarre story this week about the
PM's deputy pre secretary who resigned after allegations of recording
Wellington's sex workers. When that came to light, what impact
could this have on the Beehive.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, the Beehive appears to be genuinely blindsided by this.
No one working there, or at least any when I've
spoken to, appears to have had even an inkling of
this alleged behavior. The Prime Minister how to press conference
on Thursday, where it was quite clear how angry and
I think fear to say upset, Christopher Luxen was. There's
rightfully been a number of questions merged from this whole
(00:52):
scandal about the processes involved in vetting Beehive staffers, particularly
those like this individual who would have had access to
extremely confidential information and are therefore potentially vulnerable to blackmail.
And to be clear, there's no evidence that's occurred here,
but it has prompted agencies to look at what holes
(01:12):
there might be in the system. So, for example, if
a staffer moves from one ministerial office up to the
Prime Minister's office, should they undergo a new round of
vetting to see if anything has changed in their circumstances.
And the Primis has also made clear he wants to
have a look at how different agencies interact with each other.
We know this alleged behavior came to police's attention last
(01:34):
year and made its way all the way up to
the Police executive. So why didn't they let Ministerial Services?
This is the department which employees Beehive staff is why
didn't they let this department know about this investigation? Are
there limitations due to privacy and should that be outweighed
by the need to make the Beehive or our intelligence
services aware of such an investigation. There'll also be probably
(01:58):
a look at potential legislation changes. You know, audio recordings
aren't captured in some of the legislation, and the photograph
this man allisedly took were done in public places, So
does our legislation need to be updated? These are the
types of questions the Beehive and government departments are now
going to have to grapple with.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's quite a few questions Jamie to be answer, thinks
in the system, Yeah yeah, okay, all right, we've established
that right. Finally the Ta Party Mahoriti Hiker debate has
been settled. How did MP's approach the recommendations for the
three years to be suspended.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's felt like an eternity, but Parliament has finally voted
to support the Privileges Committee's recommendations which are to suspend
hahnah Rafferty might be Clark, Debbie Nahwi were Packer and
Rahwadi whit Tti for their involvement in that hakka last year. Now,
the vote was a long party line, so the government
voted to support and the opposition was against it. There
(02:56):
was no compromise or any sort of back down. It's
all pretty sad standard stuff. But the debate itself was
really interesting. I sat through it in the house and
it went for about three hours. There were some really
colorful moments. So Winston Peters, for example, moved to the
Prime Minister's seat for his speech, which felt like a
bit of a power play. But then he had to
apologize after calling Whitetti's muckl a scribble on his face
(03:21):
and Whiteti held up a noose to symbolize what he
called the silencing of Moldy people. But there's some other
contributions I think worth mentioning. So for example, Hana who
is the Party Mali MP who began the hucker and
went viral for it. She got really emotional during her
speech talking about the feeling of having her voice taken away.
(03:42):
She said that she wants there to be a legal
duty for politicians to respect and uphold the Treaty of
White Ay, and she's introduced a member's bill to do that.
There's also Labor MP's Willie Jackson and Adrian ru Rafa
he's a former Speaker of the House. Both of them
actually turned to to Party Maldi and applored them to
think about apologizing as well as their long term strategy.
(04:05):
Rue Raffi's speech which in particular struck me, he highlighted
that to make change to Party Maldi actually first seeds
to actually show up to some of the votes on legislation,
but also use the mechanisms within the House to improve
things rather than just trying to disrupt the proceedings.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All the time for more from the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to News Talks AB from nine
am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks edb in Zed Herald.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Political reporter Jamie Insore is with me now.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Good morning, Jamie, Good morning, Francisca.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Okay, so a rather bizarre story this week about the
PM's deputy pre secretary who resigned after allegations of recording
Wellington's sex workers. When that came to light, what impact
could this have on the Beehive.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
Yeah, the Beehive appears to be genuinely blindsided by this.
No one working there, or at least any when I've
spoken to, appears to have had even an inkling of
this alleged behavior. The Prime Minister how to press conference
on Thursday, where it was quite clear how angry and
I think fear to say upset, Christopher Luxen was. There's
rightfully been a number of questions merged from this whole
(00:52):
scandal about the processes involved in vetting Beehive staffers, particularly
those like this individual who would have had access to
extremely confidential information and are therefore potentially vulnerable to blackmail.
And to be clear, there's no evidence that's occurred here,
but it has prompted agencies to look at what holes
(01:12):
there might be in the system. So, for example, if
a staffer moves from one ministerial office up to the
Prime Minister's office, should they undergo a new round of
vetting to see if anything has changed in their circumstances.
And the Primis has also made clear he wants to
have a look at how different agencies interact with each other.
We know this alleged behavior came to police's attention last
(01:34):
year and made its way all the way up to
the Police executive. So why didn't they let Ministerial Services?
This is the department which employees Beehive staff is why
didn't they let this department know about this investigation? Are
there limitations due to privacy and should that be outweighed
by the need to make the Beehive or our intelligence
services aware of such an investigation. There'll also be probably
(01:58):
a look at potential legislation changes. You know, audio recordings
aren't captured in some of the legislation, and the photograph
this man allisedly took were done in public places, So
does our legislation need to be updated? These are the
types of questions the Beehive and government departments are now
going to have to grapple with.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
There's quite a few questions Jamie to be answer, thinks
in the system, Yeah yeah, okay, all right, we've established
that right. Finally the Ta Party Mahoriti Hiker debate has
been settled. How did MP's approach the recommendations for the
three years to be suspended.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
It's felt like an eternity, but Parliament has finally voted
to support the Privileges Committee's recommendations which are to suspend
hahnah Rafferty might be Clark, Debbie Nahwi were Packer and
Rahwadi whit Tti for their involvement in that hakka last year. Now,
the vote was a long party line, so the government
voted to support and the opposition was against it. There
(02:56):
was no compromise or any sort of back down. It's
all pretty sad standard stuff. But the debate itself was
really interesting. I sat through it in the house and
it went for about three hours. There were some really
colorful moments. So Winston Peters, for example, moved to the
Prime Minister's seat for his speech, which felt like a
bit of a power play. But then he had to
apologize after calling Whitetti's muckl a scribble on his face
(03:21):
and Whiteti held up a noose to symbolize what he
called the silencing of Moldy people. But there's some other
contributions I think worth mentioning. So for example, Hana who
is the Party Mali MP who began the hucker and
went viral for it. She got really emotional during her
speech talking about the feeling of having her voice taken away.
(03:42):
She said that she wants there to be a legal
duty for politicians to respect and uphold the Treaty of
White Ay, and she's introduced a member's bill to do that.
There's also Labor MP's Willie Jackson and Adrian ru Rafa
he's a former Speaker of the House. Both of them
actually turned to to Party Maldi and applored them to
think about apologizing as well as their long term strategy.
(04:05):
Rue Raffi's speech which in particular struck me, he highlighted
that to make change to Party Maldi actually first seeds
to actually show up to some of the votes on legislation,
but also use the mechanisms within the House to improve
things rather than just trying to disrupt the proceedings.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
All the time for more from the Sunday Session with
Francesca Rudkin. Listen live to News Talks AB from nine
am Sunday, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.