από τον τύπο τους:

The thousands of people who marched in protest of a new bill that would grant the New Zealand’s government sweeping spy powers, were misinformed, Prime Minister John Key has said playing down the nationwide protests.

The surveillance bill, which is expected to be passed in parliament, would allow New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) free rein to listen in on citizens’ phone conversations.

Kiwis took to the streets on Saturday in 11 cities and towns in what has been dubbed as an “uphill battle” to stop the bill from going through.

Key, however, argued on Sunday that the turnout was “quite light” and insisting that those involved in the mass demonstrations were ill-informed or had a political agenda.

“At the risk of encouraging them to have more protests, I would have actually said those numbers were quite light – it wasn’t anything like what we saw for mining or anything else,” he told TVNZ’s Q&A program on Sunday.

“Secondly, a lot of people that would go along would be either A, politically aligned, or B, with the greatest of respect, misinformed,” he stressed.