"I'm just a poor student mate"

How dare a dirty filthy coal company owned by the Government be allowed to infiltrate and pay for spies into environmental groups – I think we understand if they (Solid Energy) wanted to monitor the protest groups, they are after all right next to your place of business, as paranoid and tasteless as having men in camouflage watching protestors is, I think we all understand Solid Energy’s position BUT to hire a student to go into the group and spy on them is way beyond anything any Government agency (that isn’t directly the SIS or Police Department) should ever be allowed to do. We have massive checks and balances (supposedly) within the SIS and the Police to over see such surveillance, allowing a Coal company to plant a student spy, who would urge other protestors to break the law is something Solid Energy should be punished for.

Oh and Mr Paterson-Rouse, you are a fucking traitor for a coal company of all things, how very, very dirty. What goes around Mr Paterson-Rouse, what goes around.

Solid Energy boss unrepentant over use of student for spying duties
The head of a state-owned mining company accused of using a spy to infiltrate a protest group has rejected calls for his resignation, saying his firm will do whatever is necessary to protect itself. Solid Energy chief executive Dr Don Elder has come out swinging against the "anarchist" Save Happy Valley Coalition, after it was revealed that a student was paid to supply information to a private investigation firm contracted by the company. The spy, Ryan Paterson- Rouse, admitted being paid $100 a week to provide inside information to Auckland's Thompson and Clark Investigations. Mr Paterson-Rouse, 25, told the Herald he provided information about numbers at public meetings only because "I wasn't privy to much else". He thought he was supplying the information to a journalist. He said he believed in what the protesters were doing, and saw the spying as a way to make some easy money. "I'm a poor student, mate." Peace Action Wellington believes it was also infiltrated by a spy working for Thompson and Clark Investigations. Save Happy Valley Coalition spokeswoman Frances Mountier said Dr Elder should resign immediately over the episode.