How much trouble is Robertson in?

Few people believe the information National obtained is from a hack. In fact it is unclear there even was a hack, let alone that Treasury has had “its systems deliberately and systematically hacked”.

The reference to 2,000 attempts over 48 hours to access secure Budget material is potentially meaningless. There are bots all the time trying to access secure areas of websites.

Now if it transpires that the information did not come from any hacking, then Treasury will have huge egg on their face. But to be fair to Treasury, they never linked the material National had with the claimed hack.

But Grant Robertson did. Here’s what he said:

“We have contacted the National Party tonight to request that they do not release any further material, given that the Treasury said they have sufficient evidence that indicates the material is a result of a systematic hack and is now subject to a Police investigation.

Robertson explicitly said there is evidence that National’s material is a result of a systematic hack, a serious criminal offence.

If this proves not to be the case, Robertson is in serious political trouble.

Later today National will reveal how it got the material. To date far from there being evidence of a hack, all the evidence is that it was not. Yet Robertson smeared National by starting there is evidence the material is the result of criminal activity.