A resignation and a retirement

Stuff reports:

Former National Party President Michelle Boag has left the National Party, after being a member for 47 years.

Her resignation comes after revelations she passed on private patient information to National health spokesperson Michael Woodhouse.

Boag had already resigned from several other positions after revelations she passed on private patient information to MP Hamish Walker, who will not stand for re-election this year as a result of the ensuing scandal.

Woodhouse says he deleted the information and did not pass any information on to others. He confirmed the information given to him by Boag was not the source of allegations he made about the lax security measures at the New Zealand border.

It’s wrong to leak private patient information once. It’s even more wrong to leak it multiple times.

Stuff also reports:

A controversial National MP with links to Chinese spy agencies is retiring.

Jian Yang announced on Friday that he would not stand in the 2020 General Election after serving “three rewarding terms” in the National Party caucus.

This is despite announcing in March that he was being reselected as a list-only candidate for the party – in a press release for Chinese-language media only.

“Accordingly, I have informed the Party President that I should not be considered by the regional list ranking committee of the Northern Region in its meeting tomorrow, hence my announcement today.”

Many in National will be relieved at this news. Its not that Dr Yang has even done anything wrong, or been anything other than a loyal MP, but his background has raised issues that frankly are a distraction for National.

So the resignation and the retirement, while messy in themselves, do tidy up some issues that may have caused problems for National in the future.