A bad leak

Stuff reports:

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has referred a massive leak of NZ First members’ personal details to the police and privacy commissioner.
The databases sent include the names, occupation, phone numbers, addresses, and paid membership status of more than a thousand people affiliated with the political party – including Peters and his partner Jan Trotman.
The information was sent along with a bundle of other documents in an email to Stuff, several other media outlets, and MPs Simon Bridges, Paula Bennett, and David Seymour.
Peters tweeted on Tuesday night that the leak was a “deliberate and malicious misappropriation of data by a disgruntled source.”

This is a bad thing. It is one thing to leak documents revealing issues around the campaign and finances. They can be justified. But to leak the membership database is very unfair to ordinary NZ First members. People should be able to donate to a political party without their names being made public.

It does make you wonder who is leaking. I presume only very senior office holders would have had access to the membership database.