New Zealand - The Alliance says the use of spies and private investigators on political groups by Solid Energy would end under full public and democratic control of electricity and other state owned assets.
The use of young people to infiltrate political groups by private investigators, who are linked to Solid Energy and other corporates, has been revealed by an investigative report in today's Sunday Star Times. (more)
The man who spied for state-owned company Solid Energy has faced up to one of the greenie friends he betrayed.
The 25-year-old Christchurch university student, Ryan Paterson, infiltrated an environmental group, Save Happy Valley, and for months passed information to a private eye about opposition to the company's planned West Coast coal mine.
"I mean I'm on the front page of the paper as a spy who would sell his soul to screw greenies and help big business," he says.
So what causes a man to rat on his friends and comrades? Love? Politics? "Money," he says. All up he received $2,000 to join the Save Happy Valley Coalition.
He says he feels terrible now because he came to believe in the cause. (more)
