KEY POINTS:
Secret recordings have given the goldfish bowl of political life very receptive ears.
The recordings are easy to make: digital recorders cost less than $200, are smaller than cellphones (which also have recording facilities), have several hours of recording time and will work from inside a jacket pocket.
And they can create major political disruption - as both major parties have discovered this year.
Labour Party president Mike Williams was caught out at Labour's conference in April, recorded endorsing the possible use of government department pamphlets for electioneering. He denied doing so - until the recording was played back to him on television.
The latest recordings played on TV3 were not made by a journalist, but are understood to have been leaked by someone who got into the National conference.
Media lawyer Steven Price said it could be a crime to tape a conversation if the circumstances indicated one wanted it to be private - meaning if it was caught by an eavesdropper, it could be illegal.
But Mr Price said the law may not apply in a situation where the person could reasonably expect it to be overheard - such as a cocktail party.
New Zealand has no specific broadcasting or print-media guidelines about secret recordings, although the Broadcasting Standards Authority has ruled that broadcasting overheard conversations was a breach of privacy - unlike in the United Kingdom, where the BBC's guidelines say they must be justified by a clear public interest and only as last resort, as misuse or overuse could discredit their impact.
Act leader Rodney Hide said he was aware of the small size of recorders and that he had been recorded, but the best solution was to say in private what you say in public.
As Prime Minister Helen Clark said of Mr English being caught out: "That's public life isn't it - we live in a goldfish bowl. There always a possibility that anything we say can get picked up, spun around and end up on the front page of the newspaper."
