Dotcom wins $90,000 damages for Crown’s info refusal
The Human Rights Tribunal has ruled that the Crown broke the law by withholding information from internet mogul Kim Dotcom.
The finding said Dotcom wrote to all 28 ministers of the Crown as well as almost all government departments asking for personal information they held on him.
The 52 requests, made in 2015, were nearly all identical. Dotcom said it was urgent due to pending legal contributing their skills and energy to our communities.
As the leader in a health business providing innovative digital health solutions for children, I was concerned about the impact this would have on my ability to grow this business in Kaitaia.
I hoped my business would provide jobs and help grow the local and regional economy. I believed then that this decision by Air NZ could make it difficult to attract the people with the required skills to do that.
What has been forgotten in the debate about the big corporate airline dropping the regions is that we do have regular flights serving Kaitaia that are enough to meet the needs of someone like myself for personal and business reasons.
Barrier Air is an excellent and dedicated boutique airline which action. They were forwarded to then-Attorney General Chris Finlayson, who declined his request, saying they were vexatious and he did not have sufficient grounds.
The tribunal decided the Crown had breached the Privacy Act by refusing the request and has been ordered to pay $90,000 in damages — Claire Trevett in my opinion should be recognised for its commitment to communities like Kaitaia.
I presume that for Air New Zealand, flying to Kaitaia is not profitable, so let’s support the little guys who fill that gap.
Barrier Air needs ongoing support from local and central government to be commercially sustainable. This will enrich communities like Kaitaia and importantly the air travel industry of New Zealand. Let’s focus on the solution and support the airline that IS serving Kaitaia. for loss of benefit and loss of dignity.
Finlayson also advised that insufficient reasons for urgency had been provided.
In a letter sent by the SolicitorGeneral to the Privacy Commissioner it was noted the requests “were not genuine Privacy Act requests but rather a litigation tactic and a fishing expedition” and had “an ulterior motive”, namely to disrupt litigation and in particular, the extradition hearing.
However, the Humans Rights Review Tribunal said “there was no proper basis for the decline decision”.
From the evidence provided the tribunal said “there was no ulterior purpose to the timing of the requests and that he simply wanted to receive the requested information so that if relevant, it could be used in the extradition proceedings and in other litigation”.
“We are satisfied by his evidence that the requests were genuine and based on an honest belief that in the unique circumstances of a truly exceptional case, the July 2015 Privacy Act requests were necessary to ascertain what personal information about him was held by government agencies in New Zealand.”
Dotcom is battling extradition to the United States to stand trial for alleged copyright breaches over his former website Megaupload.
In December, Dotcom filed a claim against the New Zealand and US Governments for pursuing and maintaining an erroneous arrest warrant and misleading the New Zealand court which granted it.