The National Party has apologised after information about people who signed up for two of its petitions, including one about the Lumsden Maternity Centre, was used to solicit donations. Some signers were left irked when they began receiving emails asking them to donate to the party after signing petitions to save the Lumsden Maternity Centre and an Auckland-to-Kapiti flight route. The petitions - started by two National MPs - drew thousands of signatures, the former alone collecting more than 2400 last week. "We have since gone back to each individual concerned, apologised for the error, and removed them from the main email list," he said. Joanne Dacombe, one of the signers, told RNZ she would be hesitant to sign petitions by the party in future.

Source: Otago Daily Times March 19, 2018 00:33 UTC