Police are keeping quiet on the investigation into a text allegedly sent from the phone of National MP Sarah Dowie to Jami-Lee Ross. The investigation was apparently sparked by a call to the Crimestoppers hotline. Newstalk ZB Political Editor Barry Soper says the text contains the words "you deserve to die". There was no immediate show of support for the Invercargill MP.
Anne McCracken, who is regarded as one of Dowie's strongest organisers in the electorate, said: "There will be no comment today." Others who were involved in Dowie's 2017 campaign - lawyer Sean Woodward and businessman Jon Turnbull - said they were no longer involved in her party support network. The only current member of her electorate committee to be identified, Murray Halstead, refused to make any comment.
Also today, a New Zealand university professor has been sentenced to home detention, for indecently assaulted an 82-year-old dementia patient in a rest home.