Prassinos 'assessing his options'

Queenstown Lakes District Council watchdog Andre Prassinos says he is assessing his options after the council refused to apologise to him.

Yesterday, the Otago Daily Times reported Mr Prassinos went to the Privacy Commission for a determination over a statement issued by council chief executive Duncan Field.

The statement, published in July last year, said the council was tiring of Mr Prassinos' complaints and attacks he had made which were "consistently" found to be without substance.

The Privacy Commissioner found the use of the word "consistently" breached principle 8 of the Privacy Act - accuracy.

Council regulatory and corporate services general manager Roger Taylor said on Thursday the council would not be apologising to Mr Prassinos and it would not be removing the statement at the heart of the issue from its website.

Speaking to the ODT yesterday, Mr Prassinos said he did not believe the matter should rest there.

"I'm assessing my options. Under the Human Rights Act there is a section on victimisation . . . they can't treat some people one way and another person another way.

"You can't be punitive with one set of people who oppose you and behave in another manner with those who support you.

"I am considering taking up the matter with the Human Rights Act, and continue to lobby."

Mr Prassinos said the bigger issue was democracy.

"I'm not going to stomp and shout . . . the time for that has passed. This is very serious and goes beyond my personal reputation.

"It needs to be treated in a careful manner . . . the public need to see it's appropriate for them to participate in democracy. It's extremely bad form, even if one disagrees with me . . . to silence those who are merely trying to participate in democracy," Mr Prassinos said.

He said the matter may have a "chilling effect" on democracy.

Mr Prassinos wants an apology from the council.

If the council would not remove the statement from his website, he wanted it to attach an appendix to the statement, referring to the Privacy Commission decision.

Further, he wanted internal policy changes, which occurred at the council following the incident, to be made public.

"People in the district need to see that they can speak up freely, without fear of being attacked in some way."

Mr Taylor could not be reached for comment yesterday.

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