Political activist Nicky Hager takes next step in privacy case against Westpac
Nicky Hager is asking the Human Rights Review Tribunal to consider other people's privacy cases too.
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Hawke’s Bay
Political activist and journalist Nicky Hager is taking a case against Westpac to the Human Rights Review Tribunal.
Earlier this week Privacy Commissioner John Edwards censured the bank for releasing Mr Hager’s records to the police without a court order.
The commissioner’s decision was advisory only and he stopped short of sending Mr Hager’s complaint to the tribunal.
Mr Hager is now asking the tribunal for binding orders requiring Westpac not to give its customers’ bank transaction data to the police without a production order.
“He has asked Westpac to acknowledge that it breached his rights. Despite the Privacy Commissioner’s ruling, it has not been prepared to do that,” says Mr Hager’s lawyer Felix Geiringer.
Westpac has said it has a new policy not to release information to the police in future without a production order, except in limited circumstances.
Mr Hager has also asked the tribunal for an order requiring Westpac to notify everyone whose privacy may already have been breached.
Mr Geiringer says even if Mr Hager succeeds before the tribunal, the broader privacy issue still remains with all New Zealand banks having the same arrangement with the police.
The records were released during a police investigation into leaked information published in Mr Hager's 2014 pre-election book Dirty Politics in which a large amount of material was sourced from an anonymous informant known only as "Rawshark' whose identity has never been revealed.
A claim against the police for making the requests from Westpac is still before the High Court.
Fiona Rotherham
Thu, 23 Feb 2017
Thu, 23 Feb 2017
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Political activist Nicky Hager takes next step in privacy case against Westpac
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