Ian Wishart requests privacy waiver to investigate James Shaw’s Masters degree

To date, the investigative journalist has not received a response from the Greens co-leader.

The controversy over James Shaw’s university qualifications continues as Ian Wishart turned the spotlight on Shaw’s Master’s degree.

It was revealed last week that Shaw did not graduate from the Victoria University of Wellington with a B.A., despite his online profiles, including his LinkedIn account, stating he did. The LinkedIn profile has since been amended.

There was no dispute that Shaw graduated with a Master’s in Science (MSc) from the Bath University School of Management in 2005, but the question was how did he graduate, Wishart told The Platform host Sean Plunket.

Candidates for the Master’s degree at Bath generally had to have an honour’s undergraduate degree. The university could consider students with ‘a lower value degree’ on application, or, in exceptional circumstances only, work experience, said Wishart.

‘Because he didn’t have a degree at all, James Shaw must have made one hell of a pitch.’

Wishart claimed it was in the public interest for Shaw to reveal the information, or at least grant him a privacy waiver to be able to investigate the matter.

‘When you’re standing for public office and you’re being paid a public wage, and you want to control the public money and you want to exercise absolute power, it behoves you to demonstrate that you are transparent and open.’

Shaw had told legacy media earlier this week that he had ‘always been open’ about his university record.

For Wishart that representation was not sufficient.

‘It’s one thing to say the words to an interviewer that ‘I’m open and transparent about my academic record’, but when we challenge that and say ‘well okay if you’re open let us [have] access to it, and you don’t, the public can draw their conclusions.’

Gauntlet to the media: what’s more important, no.19 on ACT list or this? James Shaw told @JennaLynchNZ “I have always been very open”. Rubber, meet road. Is there something in his MSc application the public have a right to know? @1NewsNZ @MutchJessica @NewshubPolitics @rnz_news https://t.co/uuTyqCc5OM

— Ian Wishart (@investigatemag) September 11, 2023

The credibility of the leader of NZ’s 3rd ranked #nzpol party is even more in doubt, with Climate Minister James Shaw still refusing to allow media to investigate his MSc degree from the UK, 96 hours after being asked for a privacy waiver. What are @NZGreens scared we will find?

— Ian Wishart (@investigatemag) September 11, 2023

Update. It has now been 72 hours since Greens co-leader James Shaw was asked for a privacy waiver to allow media to inquire into how he managed to get an MSc degree from Bath University without a valid BA. @jamespeshaw has not yet given permission for this fact check to go ahead

— Ian Wishart (@investigatemag) September 10, 2023