Right-wing blogger Cameron Slater has started leaking secret Labour Party information online
The Whale Oil blogger says he obtained hundreds of pages of names, donations and membership details through lax security on Labour's websites.
Cameron Slater says the information shows Labour has made less than $12,000 through fundraising online. In his blog Whale Oil describes Labour as "broken-arsed".
"The total online donations and membership renewals total just
$11,831.50. Labour are broken-arsed, despite brave claims by Trevor
Mallard in his posts about the success of the campaign. If Mallard
thinks $11,000 in donations is spectacular success it says a great
deal about where he’s taking Labour," writes Mr Slater.
He verifies the information he has is real by pointing out a publicised $10 joke donation by fellow blogger Cactus Kate has turned up on the documents he is due to publish.
With Cactus Kate pledging to donate another $1000 if Whale Oil beats Mr Mallard in what he describes as a "whale vs duck" bike race, Mr Slater makes the point that she would then make up "9 percent of their campaign fund".
He claims to have proof the donations are being processed by Parliamentary Services staff, which he believes amounts to a misuse of taxpayer funding for party purposes.
Despite a letter from Labour, warning he may be breaking privacy laws by releasing the information, Mr Slater plans to reveal more confidential Labour documents over the course of this week.
Mr Slater says Labour has been lax with its security.
“I think they should be very worried and concerned. Their information systems weren’t compromised through anything other than incompetence. It’s been freely available for more than six months,” he says.
Mr Slater says there's no truth to speculation the National Party was involved in obtaining the information.
He believes the Labour Party's not alone in rorting the system.
“Most of the political parties are doing it. Every political party will have people who are rorting the system. So what I am really going to be calling for is for there to be a comprehensive and thorough review done about the rorts that are going on and the funding of political parties through the back door.”
Meanwhile, Labour says all the people whose privacy may have been compromised - have been informed.
President Moira Coatsworth says the database includes a list of people who have used the website to donate to the Stop Asset Sales campaign - and to join the party.
“We understand it has been a malicious breach. We accept responsibility for the fact it was able to occur. We unreservedly apologise and are doing everything we can to minimise the impact.”
Moira Coatsworth says one of the earliest downloads appears to be from an internet address belonging to a National Party head office mail server.
After the 2005 election, most parties repaid Parliamentary Services funding they'd misused on electioneering, totalling more than a million dollars.
Labour repaid the most, topping $700,000.
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