PRESS RELEASE

10 January 2019
An Affront to Democracy

New Conservative stands with State Services Commissioner, Peter Hughes, in his condemnation of MBIE contracting out surveillance on New Zealand citizens.

The number one rule of government is to protect its borders and defend the people’s safety and freedom.

Mr Hughes has recently called the move by MBIE to spy on people using advanced social media techniques, including using false personas, as ‘an affront to democracy.’ New Conservative agrees with Mr Hughes, and calls for his voice to be heeded.

This move is outrageous and is a clear move towards communism by the labour-led government. China has for many years spied on its people using social media as a major weapon, and indeed gone further by blocking many global internet services for fear of its people knowing too much and sharing too much information.

The question New Conservative asks is, “When will that happen in New Zealand?” This is the tip of the iceberg and anyone can see that this leads eventually to ISP-based powers and the inevitable filtering of all internet activity.

“This is the opposite to protecting our people's freedom. New Conservative calls on the government to stop these further incursions into our democracy and demand that MBIE not spy on the people of New Zealand,” says Leighton Baker, New Conservative Leader. “Jacinda Ardern and senior ministers must go further and ensure all public servants remember that the freedom of the people they serve is paramount.”

New Conservative stands for free speech and the freedom of people to openly share personal information without fear of having this collected, kept, and used against them by public servants.

ENDS

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