Simon Bridges,National leader Simon Bridges says an "emotional" junior staffer was responsible for deleting a petition against New Zealand signing the UN Migration Compact. This is despite a National Party spokesperson telling media that the petition was "archived some weeks ago" as part of "normal web maintenance". Speaking to media this morning, Bridges said when that comment was made to The Spinoff website yesterday, it was his understanding that this had been the case. The petition, now deleted, said that the compact "defers our immigration policies to the UN. "I'm not involved in website maintenance – it's not something I give a moment's thought in my role as leader of the National Party."

Source: Otago Daily Times March 18, 2019 23:15 UTC