[Sitting date: 26 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:5. Text is subject to correction.]

6. Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by all his statements?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.

Dr Russel Norman : Why did he say that the inspector-general’s finding was contested, specifically the finding that “Information which he received from the NZSIS was used by Jason Ede, a senior adviser within PMO, to assist Mr Slater in making the OIA request.”? Why did he say that that finding was contested?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Because parts of it, at least if you read the fuller part of it, Mr Slater contests.

Dr Russel Norman : So to be clear, is the Prime Minister saying that he contests that finding by the inspector-general on the basis of Mr Slater’s evidence?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I cannot fully answer that, because I do not know the answer to that question. There have been a number of discussions. But what I can say is that Mr Slater makes it clear in the report that he contests the view that the Official Information Act request was driven by my office. He himself says that he was putting in the Official Information Act requests. It is not contested that my office and Mr Slater had a discussion, but of course the main point there is that is of no relevance because, as the inspector-general says, it did not breach any obligations of confidentiality owed by the SIS on the part of the staff member. The information passed was not classified. They were free to have that conversation.

Dr Russel Norman : Does the Prime Minister contest the finding in the inspector-general’s report that Jason Ede assisted Mr Slater in making the Official Information Act request?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I cannot be sure of that. I do not contest that they had a discussion. They obviously had that, and they had a number of discussions, I suspect. But what I do hold the view of is that when Mr Slater said he was putting in an Official Information Act request, I believe that to be right. That would have been based on the back of the public comments that were made. The reason I know that is that other media did exactly the same thing.

Dr Russel Norman : Does the Prime Minister accept the inspector-general’s finding that Mr Jason Ede, a senior adviser within the Prime Minister’s office, assisted Mr Slater in making the Official Information Act request?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I cannot be sure of that because I do not know, but I certainly am strongly of the view that Mr Slater came up with the idea of an Official Information Act request. I certainly accept the view that Mr Ede and Mr Slater had a discussion. But I go back to the main point that that was in breach of no protocol and he was quite free to do that. Actually, it is quite standard, I think, for members—I certainly am aware of journalists who have told me that they have rung political staffers and rung Ministers and asked them for direction in putting in an Official Information Act request.

Dr Russel Norman : Does the Prime Minister accept the findings of the inspector-general’s report that Mr Jason Ede, working for him in his office, assisted Mr Cameron Slater to prepare the Official Information Act request?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I accept the findings of the overall report. I was not party to the conversation that Mr Ede and Mr Slater had. I am not contesting that they had a conversation.

Dr Russel Norman : So the Prime Minister does not believe the inspector-general?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : No, that is not what I have said. What I have said is it is clear that there was a conversation between the two, and it is clear from the inspector-general’s report that that was no breach—he was quite free to do that. But I tend to accept the view of Cameron Slater that he came up with the idea of putting in an Official Information Act request. That is what he said, and I tend to accept that view.

Dr Russel Norman : So, Prime Minister, just to be clear, are you telling this House that you accept the word of Mr Cameron Slater ahead of the word of the inspector-general and her report?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : That is not what I said.

Dr Russel Norman : Does the Prime Minister believe it is purely coincidence that while Mr Ede was on the phone to Mr Slater, the Official Information Act request was put in to the SIS by Mr Slater? Was it just a coincidence?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I would not want to offer the House a view on that. I do not have a view.

Dr Russel Norman : What is it about Cameron Slater, a man who celebrated the death of a car-crash victim, whose hate blog has generated death threats for public servants, that inspires the Prime Minister to back a reprobate like that over the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security?

Mr SPEAKER : That is a very marginal question. I will leave the Prime Minister to answer it.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : I am not. I accept the findings of the report. I accept that there was a discussion between Mr Ede and Mr Slater. I also accept the findings of the report, which said there was no breach in doing that and there was no reason for them to do that. What I do know is that the very strong claims made by the Green Party and made by Labour and Phil Goff prior to the 2014 election, that the Official Information Act process was tampered with through my office politicising the SIS, are absolutely proven incorrect, and everybody who reads that knows that. Unfortunately, it just was not payday for Russel Norman.

ENDS

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