Naming candidate is right

Voters in the upcoming local government elections were well served by the justice system yesterday.

The Hastings District Court declined a name suppression application by Stuart McLachlan, a candidate for the Napier City Council, who had appeared in court on a charge of assault.

Hawke's Bay Today opposed suppression of his name because we believed that the public had the right to know that a person standing for election was appearing in court.

Elections are a robust process and when candidates stand for election they put themselves up for public scrutiny. They may not think it is fair, but it is democratic and it is the way it should be.

Mr McLachlan says he is innocent of the charge. It is up to the court to decide but, in the meantime, the voters can choose whether or not they want him to represent them in public office.

Our job as a newspaper is to inform our readers and that is what we have done.

Mr McLachlan claimed the public did not have a right to know about the case and went to great lengths to keep his name secret. This included telling this newspaper that he had name suppression when he actually didn't. Our respect for the law meant we did not publish the story when, in hindsight, we could have.

We followed the legal procedure and the court upheld our right to be heard on this matter and also agreed the public had the right to know about the charge.

Judge Tony Adeane said the publication of Mr McLachlan's name being inconvenient to him in his political ambitions was not a sufficient reason.

Whether he should hold public office is now up to the Napier voters.