Leak allegations criticised

Press, 28 August 1980, Page 11

Leak allegations criticised

Recent statements by the] Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) about information leaks from Parliament and the Public Service indicated his intention to make Parliament even more secretive and less accessible, said the chairman of the Canterbury Council for Civil Liberties (Dr K. W, Clements) yesterday. Dr Clements said Mr Muldoon’s suggestions that a lack of integrity by people in both the public and private sectors was behind the leaking of secret information, was one of several attempts to subvert a free and open society.“The public have an obligation to ask who is guarding the guardians,” he said. “The

Canterbury Council for Civil Liberties is not satisfied that the recent spate of incidents benefits anybody other than Mr Muldoon himself.” Dr Clements' said that he was referring to Mr Muldoon’s refusal to allow a journalist Tom Scott, to accompany him to China, and his attempts to ensure that Mr Scott was not accredited to the Commonwealth Conference in New Delhi; the “persistent” use by Mr Muldoon of the Security Intelligence Service for political purposes, and Mr Muldoon’s statement to the National Party conference that “whenever Mr Molineaux (the head of the 5.1.5.) wanted an interception warrant he got it.”