Tea and out-takes

Joanne Black has form when it comes to inadvertently recording a prime minister's private words.

Photo David White

When it comes to accidental recordings I, unfortunately, have form. As far as I am aware, I was the only journalist to have accidentally taped a New Zealand prime minister having a private conversation, and although it happened more than 20 years ago, I still deeply regret how it all turned out. In contrast, cameraman Bradley Ambrose, who claims his recording was also accidental, doesn’t seem particularly regretful for his part in the recent episode involving John Key and John Banks.

In 2005 I wrote in the Listener about my inadvertent taping of Geoffrey Palmer when he was prime minister and I was a political reporter for the New Zealand Press Association. For those who want the excruciating details, click here, but there are some key differences.

One is that my recorder, which back in 1989 had the rolling cassette visible through a little window on the front, was not concealed inside anything else, unlike Ambrose’s microphone. A second is that I simply forgot it. I walked off after a short press conference and left it behind. Ambrose, on the other hand, stood behind the glass of the cafe looking at his disguised microphone on the table where the two politicians were talking. A third difference is that I never intended my recording would become public, whereas Ambrose handed his over to a Sunday paper, presumably intending for it to be published. A fourth difference is that when mine became public, which was the night then Opposition MP Ruth Richardson stood up and started talking about it in Parliament, I was paralysed by remorse and overwhelmed with guilt at the embarrassment I had caused Palmer and his press secretary. Ambrose, on the other hand, apparently thinks it’s “a storm in a teacup”, and as far as I’ve heard has not apologised.

Another difference – what number am I up to now? – is that probably because my apology was immediate and genuine, and because Palmer had no doubt the taping was accidental, he was more merciful than I could have hoped for and far more so than I deserved. He accepted my apology and said he would take no action. I had embarrassed him utterly and he, in return, saved my job. I have no doubt whatsoever he would have responded quite differently had he thought I’d done it on purpose, or showed no regret and done my best to get it published – and then said it was his fault for inviting journalists, which is how the Key/Banks recording story has played out.

Since then, TV3 in particular has made itself a player in the political game by selectively leaking elements of the cafe tape that was obtained in a questionable manner in the first place, two weeks before a general election. Has the media changed so much in the 20 years between these two incidents that it is now politicians’ fault if their private conversations are recorded without their knowledge?

We in the media have the power to destroy people’s careers and reputations. And we have become so cavalier about using that power that sometimes I think of changing careers to something more ethical – growing tobacco, maybe. At least then there’s no pretence.

• From Britain comes a wonderful example of the difficulty of making public policy. The Government has spent £1.4 billion on a skills training scheme aimed at lowering youth unemployment, but the biggest percentage rise in apprentices has been of people over 60, the Guardian reports. New apprentices aged over 60 have gone from 400 to 3910, up by nearly 900%. At the same time, apprenticeships among 18-year-olds have increased by a mere 18%. Beware political parties’ promises, even well-intentioned ones.