Is The Kim Dotcom Affair Becoming A Constitutional Crisis?

Thursday, 18 October 2012, 2:33 pm
Article: Alastair Thompson

New Zealand First Party Leader Winston Peters is a former Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and Treasurer.

As an expert in Parliamentary Procedure and with personal experience of the issuing of surveillance warrants in his previous ministerial roles he is perhaps uniquely qualified to discuss the current issues facing Parliament in relation to accountability issues involving the Kim Dotcom case, the Prime Minister John Key and the GCSB within a context of Parliamentary procedure.

If there is to be an inquiry into this matter - and there have been several calls for such an inquiry - how could it be conducted so as to protect issues of national security, get to the bottom of the reasons mistakes were made inside NZ's most secret organisation and provide credible reassurance to the public that these agencies are being held properly accountable?

Scoop Editor Alastair Thompson spoke to Winston Peters this morning in his caucus room about these issues. Listen to the audio below:

Earlier in the house this week:

NZ First Leader Winston Peters General Debate Speech 17 October 2012 - Re: GCSB/Kim Dotcom & John Key's Amnesia

Labour Party Deputy Leader Grant Robertson General Debate Speech 17 October 2012 - Re: GCSB/Kim Dotcom & John Key's Amnesia

17.10.12 - Question 2: Rt Hon Winston Peters to the Minister responsible for the GCSB

Specifically, have there been staff issues associated with the Government Communications Security Bureau and Dotcom affair brought to his attention by the Government Communications Security Bureau or members of the New Zealand Police, in which such staff members no longer work in their previous capacity for the Government Communications Security Bureau or any government agency; if so, what were the circumstances?

17.10.12 - Question 3: David Shearer to the Prime Minister

Further to his answers to the first supplementary question to Oral Question No 1 on 26 September and the first supplementary question to Oral Question No 1 yesterday, does he now know on what date the Government Communications Security Bureau was first told that its surveillance of Kim Dotcom was illegal?

16.10.12 - Question 1: David Shearer to the Prime Minister

Does he stand by all his statements in relation to Kim Dotcom and the inquiry into the actions of the Government Communications Security Bureau?

16.10.12 - Question 7: Dr Russel Norman to the Minister responsible for the GCSB

What were the dates of the three cases that the Government Communications Security Bureau audit highlighted, because they could not assure him "that the legal position is totally clear", as referred to in his statement of 3 October 2012?

ENDS

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Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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