New Zealand PM John Key Told To 'Cut the Crap' and Resign If He Can't Apologise Over SIS Report
New Zealand Labour Party leader Andrew Little demanded that Prime Minister John Key "cut the crap" and apologise to the people for his association with the Security Intelligence Service. In Parliament, the two officials had a heated exchange over a recently released report that Mr Key's office had aided blogger Cameron Slater to acquire SIS briefing notes. The documents turned out to be embarrassing for former 2011 Labour leader Phil Goff.
The report, released by Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Cheryl Gwyn, found that SIS had released inaccurate and misleading information regarding Goff. The former Labour leader was criticised based on unfounded criticism. According to RadioNZ, Gwyn also discovered that Mr Key's former chief of staff, Phil de Joux, and chief adviser, Jason Ede, had urged Slater to request information about Goff under the Official Information Act.
Mr Key has challenged the report and claimed that parts of it are "highly contestable." He was asked by Little about the parts that the prime minister found objectionable. Mr Key said the blogger who requested the information was disputing the information on the report. Slater insisted that he had decided to make the information request himself and without the aid of Mr Key's staff.
The prime minister further claimed that the report did not find any evidence of collusion. He accused the opposition of being unhappy with the matter which prompted an outburst from Little who told Mr Key to "cut the crap." Mr Key only replied that it was going to be an "interesting" three years for him as prime minister.
Mr Key had earlier confirmed that he received an unsolicited text message from Slater a day before the report was released on Nov 24. He said the message contained a reference to the report which Mr Key briefly acknowledged.
In reaction to the report, Goff told reporters that Mr Key should resign if he will not admit the dirty dealings coming from his office. He said Mr Key should take the responsibility but if he cannot apologise or own up to it. Goff believes Mr Key should not be the prime minister of New Zealand.