Shearer David: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12042. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition):Our democracy depends very much on the trust that we have in our intelligence agencies and the functioning of the Government. Today that functioning has had a huge knock because we have learnt today that the telephone records of journalists have been passed through to the Prime Minister’s office. We do not understand exactly why but this strikes at the very heart of the confidence that we have in this Government. The Prime Minister refuses to answer the questions of exactly what is going on at the moment and who asked for these documents. Who asked for these records is the question that we wanted answered. MrEagleson we understand asked for the overall metadata but where did that go to and why are we now questioning the absolute right of journalists in this Parliament not to have their telephone records tampered with or sent on to the office of the Prime Minister?This is yet another blow to the way that we operate in this Parliament. We have had the New Zealand Defence Force in the last couple of days accused of spying on one of our journalists as well. It comes on the back of the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill which has been rushed through a committee process without the due attention that it absolutely needs. Instead what we have got is a bill that is going to creep across the line sold by somebody who is a willing seller to the Prime Minister who is a willing buyer. That is what it was all about. The Prime Minister has the audacity to say to me: “What we want is a broad party agreement on this.” We went to him and I said: “Look in August last year we discovered that there was this spying that was going on on New Zealanders by theGovernment Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) which was illegal. If since that time the security of this country and the citizens of this country are in any way at risk we will look with you to see how we can close that loophole until such time as we can have an independent inquiry in and around this issue.” There was no evidence. There was absolutely no evidence to give me any cause to have to go to him and take that any further. Instead what we have seen is the Prime Minister so adamant that he wants to get this bill just across the line that he would do absolutely anything. He is not willing not interested in engaging with the Labour Party or any other party in this Parliament. He wants this off his books. Then when people disagree with him and I am talking about the New Zealand Law Society the Privacy Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission he calls them misinformed—misinformed.Well he is out of touch with New Zealanders here because they have lost trust in our intelligence agencies and lost trust in him as the head of our intelligence agencies. I can tell you that when people look at exactly the oversight that is going on here we have Mr Key who appointed his friend as the head of the GCSB who reports only to him and does not even need to meet with anybody else when the two of them get together. Mr Key sits on the Intelligence and Security Committee—the oversight committee—chairs that committee sets the agenda and has the casting vote. On top of that he appoints the Commissioner of Security Warrants and the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security and today we hear that his office has been implicated in obtaining and reading a journalist’s telephone records. Does that give us any trust or confidence in Mr Key or our intelligence agencies? This is a disgrace. We need as we have been saying for months now an independent inquiry into our intelligence agencies not just into the GCSB but the Security Intelligence Service the defence forces and the police and how they work together. Thank you.