MP complains Parliamentary Service monitored and blocked email
The screening and blocking of MPS emails by Parliamentary Service is ‘‘outrageous’’ and needs to stop, says Labour’s Chris Hipkins
An urgent investigation is being called for by Labour after Hipkins had an email he was trying to send to a Fairfax journalist blocked on Monday night.
The email, which contained a document sourced through the Official Information Act, was blocked because ‘‘it contained sensitive words that were in violation of Government security classifications’’, Hipkins said.
The Speaker of the House, David Carter, is waiting on a report from Parliamentary Service about the matter and told MPS he would come back with a response today.
Hipkins said Parliamentary Service told him they blocked the email.
He was told it was a ‘‘clear breach of parliamentary privilege’’.
‘‘That’s outrageous, they have no right to be screening the emails being sent by Members of Parliament. It shouldn’t matter where I got the information from, they’ve got no right to monitor my emails in the first place,’’ Hipkins said.
‘‘I know that National is now cosying up to [Fiji Prime Minister] Frank Bainimarama but that doesn’t mean they can adopt his dictatorial, anti-democratic methods here in New Zealand.’’
On further investigation, Labour staff found other examples in the last few weeks where emails had been blocked. They have not had any issues before.
‘‘If someone leaks a government document to me and I send it to media that’s my business,’’ Hipkins said.
Parliamentary Service provides support and administrative services to MPS and oversees their salary and allowances. They’re also responsible for looking after the buildings and grounds at Parliament.
Hipkins said the issue was raised in 2013 when Parliamentary Services wrongly gave a ministerial inquiry emails between Unitedfuture leader Peter Dunne and then-fairfax journalist Andrea Vance.
The then-head of Parliamentary Services, Geoff Thorn, resigned amid the fallout.
‘‘What this has done is tipped us off to the fact that they’re monitoring what we’re sending in our emails, which is completely unacceptable,’’ Hipkins said. ‘‘Clearly they haven’t learned their lesson from last time.’’
A spokeswoman for Parliamentary Service said they were working with Carter to pull together a report and could not comment.