Revelations a Damning Indictment of Key’s Honesty

The Prime Minister’s honesty is now central to the election, says Internet Party Leader Laila Harré, following the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden that there is mass surveillance of New Zealand citizens by the GCSB.

Ms Harré says the Prime Minister’s story is changing daily, and becomes more damning with every new utterance.

“In one concession Mr Key admits that a spy probe was put across the Southern Cross cable but never used. In another statement, the programme was scaled back to a narrower form.”

Ms Harré says neither statement is believable in light of Mr Snowden’s direct testimony that in his job as an NSA contractor he was able to access New Zealanders’ private communications.

“It’s not about Mr Snowden’s credibility. He has a 100% accuracy rate in evidence presented so far on spying around the world.

“The Prime Minister’s credibility about the GCSB was destroyed the day Glenn Greenwald arrived in New Zealand and Mr Key starting leaking like a sieve with details of what he claims was a programme of mass surveillance that didn’t make it to a business case.”

Ms Harré says that the Prime Minister’s conflicting disclosures are the most frightening of the lot in that he has admitted that the tools for mass surveillance have been installed.

“Mr Key’s latest defence that the GCSB doesn’t have the capacity for mass surveillance is laughable if I was laughing.

“New Zealand is a full member of the Five Eyes spy network. The GCSB provides and accesses data through the X-KEYSCORE programme.

“In Britain it’s been proven that if a Five Eyes member isn’t up to speed, the NSA will fund any capability upgrades.

“Has that happened here?”

ENDS

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