Exclusive Brethren's Covert Smear Campaign Unmasked

Source: New Zealand Herald, September 12, 2005 Recently, a brochure letterboxed around New Zealand and authorised by the previously unknown group New Zealand Advocates for Timely Healthcare urged a vote against the Labour Party in the September 17 election. Another, titled The Green Delusion, http://www.greens.org.nz/searchdocs/other9194.html|railed against Green Party policies. Subsequent investigations http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10344607|revealed the Exclusive Brethren, a fundamentalist Christian group who last year endorsed George W. Bush, were behind the $NZ500,000 campaign. The conservative Opposition National Party's leader, Don Brash, first http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10344219|denied knowledge of the campaign. He later http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10344599|confirmed he had met with the group, but insisted it was for prayer only. He subsequently http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10344635|confirmed he had advance knowledge of the leaflets. The anti-Green Party leaflet distributed in New Zealand is nearly identical to distributed in Australia before last year's federal election.