Little Andrew: Urgent Debates — SIS—Report on Release of InformationText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLittle Andrew: Urgent Debates — SIS—Report on Release of Information[Sitting date: 25 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:767. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW LITTLE (Leader of the Opposition):What a disappointing contribution to what is the most serious issue this House will have debated in many many years. Russel Norman said that today was a dark day. There has been a darker day in New Zealand politics. It was 25 July 2011 when the disgraceful filthy dirty tactics of that Government and the Prime Minister’s office came to the fore in the actions that were about misleading and deceiving the New Zealand public.Mr English was happy to read from the executive summary of this report. He clearly has not got into the recommendations. He says that this has nothing to do with politics and the lack of political neutrality but that is exactly what it is about. You only have to look at recommendations Nos 3 and 5 which is that the SIS now has to go and get advice on how to act politically neutrally. This report highlights just what a disgraceful level of conduct this Government and the presiding Minister the Prime Minister have over this department. It is shocking.New Zealanders many of whom have had great respect for this Government will tonight when they watch the news be coming to terms with the fact that this is a Government that does not know the boundaries between politics and political opportunism and the requirements of keeping a safe steady hand on the levers of State. The Government has lost the boundaries. It does not know what the boundaries are. This report is very clear. If nobody knows what the central failing act was on the part of the Prime Minister and his staff let us have a look at the report.According to paragraph 218 of the report on 25 July when the information was being exchanged—have a look at this. On the same day Mr de Joux the Prime Minister’s deputy chief of staff when he had the information from the SIS: “On the same day Mr de Joux provided that information to Mr Ede”—who had no security clearance and was not entitled to the information—“with a suggestion that it might prompt an OIA request for those documents. Mr Ede then provided that same information to Mr Slater”. This is John Key’s friend Mr Slater with whom he is in regular contact. Mr Ede then “discussed the terms of the OIA request with Mr Slater and provided Mr Slater with draft blog posts concerning the issue.” It was all run out of the Prime Minister’s office. All the allegations of Nicky Hager in Dirty Politics are verified and vindicated in the report. The Prime Minister presided over the dirtiest filthiest grubbiest vilest operation we have ever seen in New Zealand politics today—and the Deputy Prime Minister sits there and laughs and giggles.Do you know what was most disappointing about Mr English’s speech? He actually came up smelling of roses during the election campaign. He was the only National MP who when Dirty Politics hit the headlines—when John Key spun out of control calling it our left-wing conspiracy—had the integrity and the honesty to say he did not approve of that conduct. He knew it was happening—he knew it was happening—and he knew that it had been exposed. He at least had the integrity to say he would not tolerate it. Today it has changed—today it has changed.This is a Government that is in a desperate bid to control a reputation now in tatters. Not content with denying the obvious not content with defending the indefensible it releases more reports. Is Judith Collins off the hook? No she is not. The Department of Corrections is an absolute debacle. It released its report too.We know it is all wrong because this is a Government whose reputation is now in tatters. This is wrong. We know how desperate it is when John Key quotes one passage from the report but refuses to go to the next paragraph. He quotes the passage that says: “neither Mr de Joux nor Mr Ede acted inconsistently with any obligation to the SIS when Mr Ede disclosed this information to Mr Slater for political purposes after being told it by Mr de Joux.” Have a look at the next paragraph Mr Joyce. Have a look at the next paragraph because this is what it says: “The events in issue in this inquiry do however demonstrate the lack of any steps by the NZSIS to ensure that its reporting relationship to the Prime Minister was consistent both with the requirements of security and with its obligations of political neutrality.” There it is in a nutshell.The Prime Minister does not care that the departments under his control act with the absence of political neutrality because this is a Prime Minister—the most politically driven and maliciously driven Prime Minister we have had in a generation—desperate to cling on to power. He runs a smear machine out of his office. It has been going undercover for 6 years and now it has been exposed. Well it is all coming to an end. The circus is over. The circus is leaving town.Hon Steven Joyce: Oh what a load of rubbish.ANDREW LITTLE: Mr Joyce knows. He has been a ringmaster. He has been part of the ring. He knows that it is all wrong and it points to what we have all known about this Government: it has no ethics and it has no integrity. That is the shameful conclusion that thousands of New Zealanders will now draw. The person they look to the office we all look to the Prime Minister’s office—of course there are political elements to it; that is the nature of politics. But here is our responsibility. When we come to this House as MPs whether we sit on this side of the House or that side whether we are Opposition members or Government members whether we are Ministers or just MPs we have an obligation to our constitution to uphold and preserve the separation of powers in this great country of ours and this Government has lost the plot. This Government cannot do it.This Government cannot be trusted to respect the basic principles of our constitution—that the bureaucracy the Public Service has such an important responsibility to remain neutral to give free and frank advice to do its job to act in the interests of all New Zealanders not just the Ministers whom they serve on a time-to-time basis. This Government does not care about that. This Government has never cared about constitutional principle. It stands under a cloud of shame. It is a disgrace.Those members who have integrity—there are some such members opposite—are now sullied and dirtied by the dreadful appalling actions of this Prime Minister and those around him. Well it is time for that to come to an end. Who on that side is going to have the courage to stand up and say to the Prime Minister John Key: “Enough’s enough—enough’s enough Mr Key.”? The people of New Zealand deserve better. The people of New Zealand deserve a Government driven by ethics and integrity. Who is going to have the courage?Hon Dr Nick Smith: Got more ethics and integrity than you any day.ANDREW LITTLE: Will it be Dr Nick Smith? He has been kicked out of Cabinet put back in kicked out put back in. He knows enough about ethics and integrity because he has breached it enough times. He is the one. He has got experience. He should step up and say: “You know Mr Key I’ve been there where you’ve been. I’ve acted without integrity and it’s time to front up to the people of New Zealand.” It is time to front up and say that New Zealanders deserve a better approach. New Zealanders deserve a good honest Government—just like the chocolate bar. We deserve a good honest Government but that is not the Government we have at the moment. We need a Government that will observe the very basic principles of constitutional and democratic governance. And now the Government has been exposed.John Armstrong from the New Zealand Herald had it right when he said today that this Government has plumbed new depths of arrogance and contempt. And you know it would be very easy for this Government to draw a line under it simply by having John Key stand up publicly and say to all New Zealanders: “I got it wrong. I should not have had a smear machine operating out of my office. I should not have had Jason Ede”—Jason “Two Doors Down” Ede; two doors down from the Prime Minister’s office—“operating out of my office a political operative the “black-ops” operator. I should not have allowed Phil de Joux to breach his obligations his security clearance to the Security Intelligence Service and to willy-nilly pass national security information around.” The Prime Minister should stand up and apologise and he should say to New Zealand: “I got it wrong. Please forgive me.” Is he man enough to do it? Is he man enough to stand up and say: “I got it wrong. Please forgive me.”? He will not because he has been in denial. Everything he has said today in this Parliament and the handing-out of the reports of every other disaster this Government has presided over—and it has been back for only a few weeks and it has had three disasters in 1 day already to have to account for. Will he be man enough to say it? No he will not.This Government is an embarrassment to the New Zealand constitution. This Government is an embarrassment to the people of New Zealand. We have another 3 years of this to put up with but I tell the Government this: we are ready to take you on no matter how dirty no matter how filthy no matter how grubby. You are in it now—your noses are in it. We know what you are like. We know what you are made of. It is no good—the people of New Zealand want something different and they are going to get it.