It's possible foreign forces will try to interfere in New Zealand's election, with one expert arguing the world's eye has been drawn to the nation.
Otago University's Professor Robert Patman told TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning New Zealand's high-profile handling of Covid-19 and the Christchurch terrorist attacks has shone a light on the nation.
"We often think of ourselves as being small and a long way from everywhere, but we live in an interconnected world now and in the last three years New Zealand's made a series of quite important decisions which have been noticed," he said.
"These include banning automatic weapons, the Christchurch Call where we led initiatives to curb online extremism which meant, for example, that people are no longer now able to pay for political ads on Twitter which has caused some push back in some quarters.
"So there's quite a few people in the world interested in what we're doing here."
However, Prof Patman said not everyone was happy with New Zealand's approach.
"We have a world view that's different from China, from the Trump Administration and from Russia so there are one or two people in the world that might like to influence things in what they would see as a more positive direction in New Zealand."
Prof Patman also said being a democracy and so interconnected could make New Zealand more susceptible.
He said many powers now are trying to influence the social media scene.
"What we do know, for example, the GCSB - Government Communications Security Beaureau - have detected quite serious cyber intrusions from a number of actors, including China and Russia."
However, he added, "it's not just a question of states, it's also a question of political players in the New Zealand arena seeking assistance from outside - sometimes called strategic advice - and some of those players in providing that advice are not disinterested in the outcome, obviously they want particular parties to win".
Prof Patman said this sort of behaviour wasn't new but, with the rise of the internet, geographically separated players have a more important role in shaping the debate.
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