Walker leaving politics ‘a much stronger person’

Clutha-Southland MP Hamish Walker, who will not be standing at the election after he leaked Covid-19 patient details, says he has come out of it "a much stronger person".

The Queenstown resident, who leaves politics after only one term, refused to discuss last month’s drama, but said he was right to confess about the leak to then-National Party leader Todd Muller.

"Had I not done that I would have got away with it, but I think the right thing to do was to ’fess up, own it, learn and move on.

"End of the day, I got the wrong advice and I’m the one that has to be held accountable for that.

He declined to tell Newstalk ZB in an interview yesterday who gave him the wrong advice, but said he had not been thrown under a bus.

"We’re all human. We make mistakes along the way and I owned it — that’s the values I live by," he told Mountain Scene.

Mr Walker told an inquiry he released the patients’ details to three media outlets to deny allegations he was racist for putting out a press release revealing Covid-19 cases were coming to the South from India, Pakistan and Korea.

"Out of adversity comes opportunity to grow as a person, and I’m certainly much stronger."

After taking leave and effectively going to ground for two weeks after his July 8 resignation, he had to convince people he was not standing again.

He estimated he had 1000-plus messages of support .

"I would have had probably only half-a-dozen hate messages."

Mr Walker said he was enjoying more family time with his wife, Penny, and baby daughter, Victoria.

He was enjoying the prospect of working three or four more weeks in the electorate, now the election had been postponed a month.

Mr Walker said issues he was leaving unresolved included reversing the Labour-led Government’s foreign buyer ban, improving Queenstown’s mental health services and resolving more immigration cases.

"As of about a week ago, the Minister [of Immigration]
packed up and said, ‘No more decisions till after the election’."

He would also like to see tourism move from a volume focus to "high-value".

As for his future, he would remain in Queenstown, where he moved to from South Otago last year, and said he had been offered "a few opportunities".

"I’m currently looking at some sort of business, something for myself . I’ll make a call over the next few weeks."

He would also join some community organisations, and had signed up for Paradise Trust’s volunteer day next month.

— Philip Chandler 

— Mountain Scene, additional reporting Newstalk ZB