Reports that the Prime Minister’s senior advisor gave secret SiS information to blogger Cameron Slater in order to embarrass the Labour Party shows John Key and his staff were up to their necks in Dirty Politics and abused their power to manipulate at least one election campaign, the Green Party said.
Media outlets are reporting that Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn will heavily criticise former SIS head Warren Tucker in her report to be released tomorrow, citing a too cosy relationship with the Prime Minister’s office. Ms Gwyn is also expected to find that John Key’s former advisor Jason Ede was on the phone with Cameron Slater at the same time Mr Slater filed an OIA request for SIS information about then Labour leader Phil Goff, proving a key allegation in the Dirty Politics’ book, that the PM’s office used the SIS to attack Labour during the election campaign.
“The allegations are so serious that it is imperative that a Royal Commission of Inquiry is held into all the allegations of corruption and misuse of power in the book Dirty Politics,” Green Party Co leader Metiria Turei said today.
“John Key misled New Zealand by saying Dirty Politics was made up when, by the SIS’s own admission, the most damning allegation in the book was true.
“John Key has degraded the office of the Prime Minister. His close advisor ran a black ops scheme from his office for years and John Key has pretended not to notice.
“John Key has repeatedly misled New Zealanders about the extent to which he and his close advisors were involved in using the power of the Prime Minister’s office to manipulate the outcome of elections.
“We need a Royal Commission to investigate the whole matter and clean up politics in NZ and restore faith in the system,” Mrs Turei said.
