This morning reports appeared on Stuff and The Post that some members of The New Zealand Society in London saw Nicola Willis as “the next Prime Minister of New Zealand”.
The source of those rumours was reportedly an “Auckland journalist” called Rachel Glucina. That was all the media mentioned.
But it appears the story goes much deeper than that.
Rachel Glucina is a familiar face on the National Party politics and media circuit. Right now, she’s the President of the New Zealand Society.
She is also previously named in a John Key dirty politics type story, which involved allegations that she had misrepresented herself as a PR advisor to get close to a John Key critic.
The Guardian covered this story at the time. And I quote:
Screenshots taken of the Herald website by Twitter users appear to show the statement had been revised at least four times since it was published, including one revision that appears to retract the statement that Glucina did not misrepresent herself.
Shayne Currie and Rachel Glucina have been contacted for comment. Attempts to contact Amanda Bailey were unsuccessful.
It will be interesting to see which version of events is confirmed, if that ever occurs.
Last year, Rachel Glucina was among several journalists implicated in Nicky Hager’s book Dirty Politics, which alleged senior government officials were executing smear campaigns against opponents with the help of media. Hager said he tried to avoid shaming journalists in the book, with the exception of Glucina, whom he described as “despicable”.
Yes, Hager did not want to shame journalists with the except of Glucina, whom he described as “despicable”
So the questions are:
Why is Glucina dropping these ideas?
Why does Key always feel involved from NCEA, to Crimson Circle, to Q&A Jamie Beaton coverage, to now this? Is it just all a coincidence?
Why did media not mention her background?
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