Secrets and spies in God's Own

I have nothing to hide. I am well used to being in the public spotlight. It was once part of my life to have others talk about me in less than flattering terms. Photo / Thinkstock

Opinion

You will no doubt be as surprised as I was to learn that a junior civil servant is able to scoop up more information about you and me, in secret, without a warrant, than the director of the Security Intelligence Service can.

Well, that's if the New Zealand Government is to be believed.

You will recall a couple of months back I reported my horror at discovering it appeared I was under covert investigation. I have since found out more — but not much.

It started with Hamilton-based Deputy Official Assignee Annemarie Foidl issuing what are called Section 165 notices to my friends and colleagues.

Foidl demanded that they appear before a private investigator to answer questions or face arrest.

They complied. In such fashion Foidl scooped up information about me, my movements, my activities, my family and more.

Foidl's boss, Mandy McDonald, will neither confirm nor deny the gathering of information.

She says I am not under investigation. I now know her real target is a friend of mine.

Quite how Foidl jumps from collecting information about his business affairs to gathering deeply personal information about me and my family I don't know.

I have complained repeatedly in detail to McDonald, who says there's no evidence her staff have operated "contrary to law, unreasonably, unjustly or oppressively".

I wrote to Minister Paul Goldsmith. He says there's nothing he can do and suggested I get legal advice.

I would have thought he would be anxious to ensure his department, when snooping on private citizens, is doing so lawfully. Instead he told me to get a lawyer.

He has left it up to me to prove their snooping unlawful — not for them to prove it's lawful.

The interesting thing for me is how upsetting it has proved to be. I have nothing to hide. I am well used to being in the public spotlight. It was once part of my life to have others talk about me in less than flattering terms.

I would have thought it no big deal to have a state agency do similar.

But I have found it extremely disturbing to have friends and colleagues compelled to appear under threat of arrest and answer questions about me and my family put to them by a private investigator under contract to the Government.

Oh, and to have those friends and colleagues warned not to tell me what they were asked.

It's extremely invasive and sinister. It's what we expect of totalitarian regimes, not free and democratic societies such as ours.

I have complained to the Ombudsman, who is investigating and I am hitting the law books to understand my options.

It simply can't be that Foidl, whose job it is to administer bankrupts, has more power to snoop on people than the director of the SIS, whose job it is to chase terrorists.