Prominent conspiracy theorist and former frontman of New Zealand band Opshop Jason Kerrison appears to be profiting from the Government’s Covid-19 response.
Whakarongorau Aotearoa New Zealand Telehealth Services released a list of 11 tracks that comprise the hold-music for about 35 government-funded telehealth services.
These include the Covid-19 Healthline, the Covid Vaccination Healthline, and the Covid-19 welfare helpline.
The playlist includes a song called Warrior Spirit, performed by two singers — Jackie Bristow and Kerrison.
Kerrison, who was born in Southland, rose to prominence in the band Opshop in the mid-2000s and last year was the winner of the TV programme Masked Singer.
In February, he made headlines after a Twitter stoush with journalist Hilary Barry in which he made what she called “veiled death threats” when he replied to a tweet with a picture of a mass hanging.
Kerrison was also one of several prominent New Zealanders who attended the anti-mandate occupation at Parliament grounds.
When contacted for comment, Kerrison said he was unaware his music was being “exploited” on the playlist.
He would not comment when asked if he was earning royalties from the track or if he would ask for it to be pulled from the playlist.
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Whakarongorau Aotearoa pays an annual fee of $7388 for the playlist to licensing service OneMusic, which provides music from NZ on Air.
A Whakarongorau Aotearoa spokeswoman said the track featuring Kerrison had not been brought to its attention, but if any complaints were made they would have been acted on.
The service would be looking at updating the playlist, which had been the same since October 2020, the spokeswoman said.
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