Report confirms John Key abused power of PM’s Office

Today’s Inspector General of Intelligence and Security’s (IGIS) report confirms that the Prime Minister’s office engaged in a serious abuse of power, says the Green Party.

The IGIS report looked at the release of an Official Information Act request to disgraced blogger Cameron Slater prior to the 2011 election revealed in the Dirty Politics book. The investigation was held in response to a complaint lodged by the Green Party.

“John Key is accountable for the dirty politics emanating from his office. His Deputy Chief of Staff, Phil de Joux, misused the information provided to him by the SIS, and Jason Ede then went on to give that to Slater,” said Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman.

“It is inconceivable that John Key did not know about the black ops dirty politics coming out of his office. This report shows his Deputy Chief of Staff was neck deep in it.

“The Deputy Chief of Staff acts on behalf of the Prime Minister with his full authority. John Key can’t say he didn’t know about dirty politics and the abuses of power when his most senior staff were engineering it.

“John Key’s office engaged in a serious abuse of power by tipping Cameron Slater off to make an OIA request aimed at discrediting the Prime Minister’s political opponents, helping National win an election,”

“The release of information was a Nixonian action, unprecedented in recent New Zealand political history, and it undermined our democracy.

“During the recent election campaign John Key said the events outlined in the book Dirty Politics were ‘baseless allegations’. The IGIS report shows the Prime Minister was wrong to say that and confirms that this claim, the most serious in the book, is actually true.

“The assistance of the Prime Minister’s office in feeding political dirt to Cameron Slater was the most serious claim in the book Dirty Politics, and the key facts of that claim have been proven to be correct.

“The Cabinet Manual requires ministers to uphold the highest ethical standards. John Key’s office has failed this standard.

“We need a Royal Commission to investigate the whole matter. John Key’s actions have seriously undermined the public’s faith in politics and we need to restore New Zealanders faith in our democracy.”

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