So ... its five days until New Zealands General Election... and its been a bit of a wild ride. A primer for the Americans out there: Some of you may have heard of Kim Dotcom, the 130kg German-born hacker behind MegaUpload? In 2012 New Zealand used 76 officers and two helicopters to raid his Auckland mansion, purportedly at the behest of Hollywood studios that were having their films pirated by MegaUpload (which was kinda like Napster). It was widely seen as a bit excessive for a case of copyright infringement, albeit one that was netting Dotcom millions. That whole raid and court case is still being litigated, but a few months ago Dotcom created this Internet Party to challenge Prime Minister John Key - whom he has loathed since the raid - and Keys centre-right National Party. This was at first treated as a big joke - this was the Party Party - but then the party created this cunning alliance with a Maori party called Mana. They dont exactly have much in common, but by banding together they could very well get over the 5 per cent threshold to win representation in Parliament, and possibly become kingmakers as parties jostle post-election to form a new government. Its a little bit as if Edward Snowden decided to return to the US and run for Senate to challenge Barack Obama. But theres more. A few months ago one of Keys key allies, the leader of the libertarian-ish ACT Party, was convicted of filing a false electoral return regarding two $25,000 campaign donations. John Banks had declared the money had been given to him anonymously, when in fact it had been given by ... Kim Dotcom! Based in no small part on the strength of testimony from Dotcom, his wife and head of security, a court was convinced Banks was lying. He was convicted and had to resign from Parliament. Then a month ago, investigative journalist Nicky Hager came out with a new bombshell book called Dirty Politics: How attack politics is poisoning New Zealand’s political environment. It was based on hundreds of emails hacked from a noxious right-wing blog called Whale Oil - revealing the cosy ties between blogger Cameron Slaterand Keys National Party. Slater was apparently being paid by National and a commercial PR company to viciously attack opponents, using allegations that often unsupported or downright fictional. In the wake of the email leaks, Justice Minister Judith Collins had to resign as minister after it was alleged she had undermined the Serious Fraud Office, charged with probing corporate misconduct. So who hacked into Slaters Gmail account and obtained these emails? Dotcom denies it was him... while saying the Rawshark hacker did the country a great service. (Theres no real evidence it WAS Dotcom, but how many politically motivated hackers are there in NZ??) And now, we get to tonights news... Dotcom held a Moment of Truth event in Auckland Town Hall that the Christchurch Press newspaper said must be one of the most ballyhooed in New Zealand political history. Edward Snowden was the surprise guest, beamed in from Russia, while journalist Glenn Greenwald, who has been in NZ for a few days now, wrote a report saying the NSA has been routinely spying on Kiwis. (Stuffs report on the town hall meeting: is.gd/2zyqVz) If you live in New Zealand, you are being watched, Snowden wrote in a blog post for Greenwalds The Intercept today. (is.gd/00RCeO) Mass surveillance is real and happening as we speak. Key is denying it and a few hours ago released documents purporting to show the Government Communications Security Bureau has no mass surveillance program. Its not exactly clear yet who is telling the truth or how much evidence there is on either side. Actually, for all of this (and Dotcom himself), Im not sure what to make of it all... but its been an interesting few months to be a journalist in New Zealand!
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 10:39:35 +0000
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