So state-owned-enterprise Solid Energy has hired a private investigation firm to place spies inside New Zealand environmental groups. (Story. Unsurprisingly, Nicky Hager’s name is in the byline.)
The Sunday-Star Times, which is clearly (and rightfully) delighted with itself for breaking this story, confronted Solid Energy Chief Exec Don Elder who said “So what?” That’s not me providing an amusing summary of an extensive comment. Those are the words appearing by his name in quote marks in the SST story. It’s sickening. If the quote is accurate – and I have no reason to doubt it – these words should haunt Don Elder for a long time to come.
Stuff is currently running a picture of one of the spies, a 21-year-old student of Wellington, “Somali”. Their confidence in running a picture suggests they have airtight documentation, even though she denies involvement:
Evidence suggests a second student, Somali, was paid by Thompson & Clark to join two Wellington groups – Wellington Animal Rights Network, which protests about vivisection and cruelty to animals, and peace group Peace Action Wellington. Over the past two years, she was a core member of the groups taking minutes at meetings and joining all their activities -while reporting to clients interested in the vivisection and arms industry intelligence. She denied any involvement when the Star-Times confronted her last week.
The Wellington Animal Rights Network? Peace Action Wellington? These are the organisations that have been compromised? They are the big threats that must be infiltrated and compromised? What this demonstrates is the power imbalance at work in this society – not only can powerful organisations run roughshod over the public good and insulate themselves from public criticism through sheer might, but they can also deploy their resources to undermine the same public criticism they’re already ignoring.
And for all that, this kind of infiltration is not just unethical, it’s also strategically foolish – New Zealand is too small for this kind of spying to be impregnable, and these inevitable revelations are going to hurt the companies concerned far more than Valerie Morse with a loudspeaker ever would.
The most staggering thing is how little I’m surprised by this. We’re a small enough country to reign in the madness, we’re capable of better than this, and yet we continue eagerly on the downward spiral. It’s enough to put you off your Sunday brunch.
Next on the New Zealand news: righties say “So what?”, the Labour government says very little at all, and lefties wonder whether what hit our heads was just another acorn or actually a piece of the sky.
Uh, sorry? Why should this in any way be suprising or, even, concerning to us lefties?
This has been going on since as long as groups of workers / activists / revolutionaries / republicans etc etc etc have been trying to change / overthrow / control groups with money and power.
It’s a standard rule of the game. Just because it’s a state-owned corporation doesn’t make a difference. Governments and corporations alike have down things like this for a long long time.