Source: Taxpayers Union
Email leaks suggest Phil Goff conspired to break the law
9 February 2020
For immediate release
“Reports Phil Goff instructed third parties to use a personal email account to avoid freedom of information laws appears to be a conspiracy to break his legal duties as an elected official,” says Jordan Williams, spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union.
“This is what got Hillary Clinton into trouble. Running a secret email account on the side of the official one in order to avoid archive and official information laws is crooked. It appears Mr Goff was conspiring to break the law.”
“John Banks’s call for there to be an independent investigation, and for Mr Goff’s secret email account to be reviewed is spot on. Auckland Council, and the Ombudsman, need to uphold the law and go to Court if they must, to get hold of what appears to be official information.”
“From a legal perspective, it doesn’t matter that it was an Xtra email account. It’s the subject matter of the emails which is the test.”
“On behalf of our 40,000 subscribed supporters, the Taxpayers’ Union, with its sister group the Auckland Ratepayers’ Alliance, are the largest user of freedom of information laws in New Zealand. We are looking at legal options to get the information the public is entitled to. Phil Goff appears to have broken the law in order to keep these emails secret. We’d all like to know what he’s hiding.”
