Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

The Labour Party, fresh from accusing Don Brash over dodgy deals with a group of Exclusive Brethren members, are being accused of gutter politics in Dunedin.

A number of state house tenants have received personally addressed letters, disguised as Eviction notices. The one page "letters" have the words 'EVICTION NOTICE' printed in bold blue type at the top, along with the statement 'Don't let National sell your house!'.

Some recipients of these letters intially believed they were genuine eviction letters, meaning they were going to lose their homes. The fliers were folded in three, with a personally addressed sticker securing them. The Labour Party's logo is printed at the bottom of the page, and mentions the name of the Labour party a number of times in the letter.

National Party list MP and Dunedin North candidate, Katherine Rich, has accused Labour of "preying upon the nation's most vulnerable", with some tenants still in shock over the letters days later.

There are also concerns over how the names and addresses of state house tenants were obtained, as Katherine Rich says she believed that information was private.

* ODT: Gutter politics in South