Nicky Hager is known internationally for his investigative writing. His first book, Secret Power, about global surveillance systems, led to a year-long European Parliament inquiry. His 2006 book, The Hollow Men, was a detailed exposé of the National Party that prompted the resignation of the party leader after publication. It was adapted into a stage play and feature-length documentary film.

His 2014 book, Dirty Politics, was highly controversial. Nicky had been leaked a trove of communications between right-wing bloggers and their political allies that revealed them launching a stream of personal attacks and dirty tricks against the National Party’s political opponents. The revelations put the phrase ‘dirty politics’ into New Zealand’s political lexicon. Then a team of police conducted a 10-hour raid on Nicky’s house, attempting to identify the dirty politics whistleblower. They were unsuccessful.

Nicky’s lawyers successfully challenged the police search and an unlawful search by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (which was seeking a source for his book Other People’s Wars). Both the police and NZSIS paid substantial damages and the raid on his house helped establish case law protecting journalists’ right to protect sources.

His 2017 investigation into civilian casualties in Afghanistan during the Special Air Service’s Operation Burnham (the book Hit & Run) was instrumental in the Office of the Inspector-General of Defence being established to provide oversight over New Zealand’s military forces.

In 2003 he was the first New Zealander to be made a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. In 2023 he was the first person made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit ‘For services to investigative journalism’.

Nicky has degrees in physics and philosophy and lives in Wellington.

Website:  Dirty Politics / Nicky Hager