Officials mock after stabbing
Spy firm and bureaucrats swap emails about environmentalist.
Government officials exchanged emails with a controversial private security firm about environmentalist Pete Bethune and derided him as ‘‘mad as a box of frogs’’.
Two top-level inquiries will examine the emails that a
Sunday Star-Times investigation helped bring to light.
The Ministry for Primary Industries apologised to the Earthrace captain this week for a string of unprofessional and catty internal emails, in which staff gloated about his arrest on board a Japanese whaling ship. The ministry released the emails to Bethune, but is refusing to hand over the correspondence between its staff and Thompson & Clark.
In July, the ministry referred evidence of serious staff misconduct to the Serious Fraud Office and the State Services Commission, which was already investigating the contracting of Thompson & Clark.
The security firm has a track record of targeting environmental activists, including anti-
mining groups and Greenpeace.
Following Star-Times inquiries, Bethune asked the ministry to disclose information it held on him, as required by the Privacy Act.
Acting deputy director John Walsh wrote back confirming Bethune was the subject of emails between staff and Thompson & Clark. But he declined to release them because they were part of the evidence passed to the SFO and SSC inquiries.
On Friday, after further questions, Walsh called Bethune to assure him the ministry did not hire Thompson & Clark to keep him under surveillance.
Walsh also apologised for insults contained in 54 pages of internal MPI emails.
They describe Bethune as a ‘‘lost cause’’ and a ‘‘clown’’. Ministry staff also did not want the Navy to investigate his reports of illegal fishing in a marine sanctuary, in case he gained publicity.
In February 2010, Bethune was stabbed when he boarded a ship in a Japanese whaling fleet. A subsequent email suggested the crew should feed him whale meat.
Bethune – who nearly died in a second stabbing last year, when he was investigating the illegal smuggling of pets in Brazil – said he had put his life on the line for conservation. He is infuriated by the insults.