Norman Russel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 09 April 2013. Volume:689;Page:9120. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]4.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green) to thePrime Minister: What is the security classification of the full report by Rebecca Kitteridge into the Government Communications Security Bureau and who in his Government had access to the full report?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister): The report has not had a national security classification with the exception of some of the appendices which will not be released. It has been classified according to normal Cabinet procedure rather than securities procedure. The Prime Minister’s office has kept copies of the report in the office safe when they have not been required. On behalf of the Prime Minister I can give the House an assurance that the copy of the report that has been leaked has not come from the office of the Prime Minister.Dr Russel Norman:I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. There were two legs to the question and I acknowledge that the Minister answered the first. But with regard to the second the question was who had access to the full report. The Acting Prime Minister has said that the Prime Minister’s office had access to the full report. It was not clear from his answer whether it was only the Prime Minister’s office.Mr SPEAKER: Is the Minister happy to expand on the answer?Hon BILL ENGLISH:Sorry to complete the answer I cannot give the member a list of exactly who has had it because the Government has not inquired into that as yet. But the report in the last couple of weeks would have had fairly broad circulation through a number of agencies and Ministers’ offices.Dr Russel Norman: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. This is a question on notice. It was very specific. It asked who in his Government had access to the full report. He has had a number of hours to ascertain the answer. He has come to the House and failed to answer the question on notice.Mr SPEAKER: Well the Minister may want to elaborate but he said quite clearly initially in his answer that it was around the Prime Minister’s office and addressed that very specifically and then he went on to say that it has been distributed to a number of agencies. He was not specific as to the number of agencies and I am not sure even though the question is on notice whether it would be fair to expect the Minister to list every agency that has had access to this report.Hon Trevor Mallard: This is a matter that has to do with a report into a security agency. I think you are aware that these things are closely held often with numbered copies often with drafts and numbers across them and lists kept. Lists are always kept of these confidential documents as to their circulation. The question did not ask which public servants have it; it asked which parts of his Government have it. It was a fairly simple question to answer and so far we have seen the House being treated with contempt by the Acting Prime Minister.Mr SPEAKER: I do not think that last part is fair but I do accept the point raised by Dr Russel Norman and by the Hon Trevor Mallard and I wonder whether I can ask the Acting Prime Minister to be more specific about who in Government had access to the full report.Hon BILL ENGLISH: I cannot be more specific at the moment. I simply do not have that information in detail for the member and some of it may be confidential so we would have to work through that process before the information could be made available.Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That is the very point. We know how the system operates. That question would have come in a long time ago. It would have been assigned to a responsible staff member to complete it factually and make sure that the answer to at least the primary question gives people the information that they are seeking. He cannot come down here and say: “Well I don’t have it at the moment.” We want an explanation now as to why he did not bother to treat this Parliament with respect and come down properly provisioned with the information he had hours to answer.Mr SPEAKER: Again the Minister has now stood up and said that he cannot give an answer. That is unfortunate. I accept the point that Russel Norman has made that this was a question on notice. The Acting Prime Minister has simply said that he has come to the House and he does not have that specific information and then alluded to the fact that it may well be classified and he does not want it released. If that is his answer that is his answer. I cannot do any more to elicit a more accurate answer but the member has further supplementary questions and I would invite him to use them to try to elicit more information.Hon Trevor Mallard: I seek leave for this question to be set down for further supplementary questions after question No. 12 today in order for the Acting Prime Minister to brief himself on a suitable answer to the primary question.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought for that course of action. Is there any objection to that course of action? There is.Dr Russel Norman: In light of the fact that the cover note on the report says that the appendices are legally privileged and highly classified does he believe that the leaking of the full Kitteridge report is a serious offence?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That may be possible but we have yet to see what aspects of the report have been leaked.Dr Russel Norman: If it does turn out that the full report has been leaked by someone in his Government what consequences should face the person who leaked this information which the Government Communications Security Bureau describes as legally privileged and highly classified? What consequences should that person face?Hon BILL ENGLISH: If appendices that have been given a security classification have been leaked then there would be significant consequences for the person who leaked them.Dr Russel Norman: Why does the Prime Minister seem confident that the appendices have not been leaked?Hon BILL ENGLISH: It is a matter of whether they appear in the public arena. The Prime Minister does not have the capacity to guess whether someone has them sitting in a shoebox under their bed but I assume that if they think there is some political effect from leaking those appendices that is worth the risk then we will eventually see them. They are not in the newspaper today.Dr Russel Norman: Given that so far the only member of his Government who he has told us has had access to this report is the office of the Prime Minister did he or a member of his staff leak the report?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That is not what I said actually. What I said to the member was that the report has been circulated fairly broadly across Government agencies in the last couple of weeks.Dr Russel Norman: If he does not know who leaked the report will he launch an inquiry to get to the bottom of it given his previous support for an inquiry into a leak at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade over documents that were probably quite considerably less sensitive?Hon BILL ENGLISH: The Government simply has not considered that at any length. Our primary concern has been that given the leak of the document it is important that the document is in the public arena so that people can see the significant issues that it raises in respect of our security agencies. The other issue has been less important than that today but who knows? The person who leaked it might own up tomorrow and there would not need to be any kind of inquiry.Dr Russel Norman: If it is found that over 80 people were illegally spied on by the Government Communications Security Bureau as is suggested in the report will he apologise to them as he apologised to Kim Dotcom and will he ensure that all the people who have been illegally spied on are given access to all the information that was illegally obtained?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well I think the member is jumping to conclusions. I think the report shows there has been a very thorough investigation of the activities of the bureau now going back to the year 2003 which includes the period of the previous Government and it does raise the question of whether the legislation passed by the previous Government was fundamentally flawed. Whether any individual has been illegally spied on is yet to be determined.Grant Robertson: Given that his own staff took the precaution of locking the report in the safe in their office why has the Government not launched an inquiry into the leaking of a document deemed so sensitive that it needed to be locked in the safe in his office?Hon BILL ENGLISH: Well I assume the staff of the Prime Minister’s office were following the usual procedure they would with documents that were labelled sensitive in the Cabinet process. As I said a couple of the appendices have a security classification and of course they would be handled very carefully. Of course the Government will turn its mind to the issue of the leak but if the member thinks that we behave like the previous Labour Government—Mr SPEAKER: Order! That is quite a sufficient answer.