Leigh Bramwell - Of Secrets and Invasions

 Read more from Leigh.

I’m thinking of setting up meetings with all the people who have invaded my privacy. I figure if Social Development Minister Paula Bennett is prepared to have one-on-ones (or two-on-twos) with those who consider their privacy has been invaded, I may as well join the queue.

The difference, of course, is that my secrets have not been revealed in the media. Nonetheless, my hugely over-developed sense of privacy means that the mere fact of someone knowing a secret about me which they have come by without my explicit consent, constitutes a breach, in my view. So the list of people I probably need to meet with over this is quite long.

Just the organisations and the individuals within them who know my salary will take weeks of meetings. There’ll be Inland Revenue, just for starters, although since their wait period for answering the phone is currently close to half an hour, it’ll probably take weeks just to get an appointment. Then there’ll be two banks (the one the money goes into and the one it goes out of), the lawyer, the accountant, the Kiwi Saver people, the insurance company and my partner. Oh, and my employers. In fact when I consider the number of people just in this building who need to know my salary in order for me to get paid every month, I’m overwhelmed by feelings of invasion. Now I totally understand how people on the rich list feel when their earnings are published in the paper, acknowledging, of course, that some of them may actually enjoy it.

There are, of course, far more serious encroachments on my privacy than people knowing how much I earn. My doctor, pharmacist and hairdresser, for example, know secrets I really wouldn’t want to see on the front page of NBR or even the Woman’s Day. Come to think of it, considering how much money I give each of them during the year (the hairdresser gets the most) they probably have a fair idea of my salary as well.

And while I’m always happy to have a one-on-one with the hairdresser, I’m not sure I can see the point of it in this context. I’m also fairly certain that she wouldn’t see the point of it either - unless she was being paid.

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