MP burgled and hacked

The HoS reports:

The dirty politics saga has taken a fresh twist with the offices of a National Party politician burgled.

Rodney MP Mark Mitchell had a laptop and phones stolen in the burglaries — and his email hacked.

You don’t break into an MPs office for money, alcohol or drugs. You break in for information. They stole a laptop.

Political commentator Chris Trotter said MPs having their property stolen was “not something that we’re used to in New Zealand politics”.

“It’s something we tend to associate with incidents like the Watergate break-in and that scandal.

“No one would condone the organised theft of political information, it puts the whole system at risk.”

So an MPs office has been broken into. I know of a Cabinet Minister’s partner whose office was targeted. Slater’s e-mail and Facebooked hacked. My office has a spy in it. I don’t know if these things are related, but it is natural to be suspicious. Others on the right have reported hacking attempts, where they have seen files being copied from their computer. We do have political espionage in New Zealand. What we don’t know is if it is a series of individuals with no connection with each other, or co-ordinated.