Carter David: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCarter David: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12040. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon DAVID CARTER (Speaker):It gives me no pleasure at all to have had to have a meeting earlier today with a journalist and to apologise on behalf of Parliamentary Service for the fact that her phone records were released. I agree that this is an issue that is very serious. All members who have contributed so far have remarked on how serious this issue is. We all have a love-hate relationship with our press gallery but it is an absolutely essential part of this democracy. There has been a breach of trust and I will do all in my power to get to the bottom of it. At this stage although a number of members who have contributed to the debate have suggested that those phone records were released under pressure from the chief of staff of the Prime Minister’s office WayneEagleson I can find absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever. In my opinion—Grant Robertson: But who asked for them?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: The member interjecting said “Who asked for them?”. It appears to me that no one asked for them to be released. [Interruption ] It appears to me that no one asked for them to be released but they were released perhaps by somebody who enthusiastically overrode what he should have done.Hon Annette King: How can they just appear?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: Sorry?Hon Annette King: How can they just appear if no one asks for them?Rt Hon DAVID CARTER: How can they just appear? Well I am sure that when this matter is teased out before the Privileges Committee that is likely to be what theHon Annette King will find out. The phone records were released. They should never have been released. Having been released they were never accessed. I have seen an email from the David Henry inquiry saying: “Whilst we received this information we never asked for this information and we returned it immediately.”This whole issue of the David Henry inquiry has opened up some very serious questions about what information should be accessed in the event of a security situation. I believe there is going to be huge difficulty sorting out whether an email is a ministerial email whether it is a parliamentary email or whether it is actually a personal information email and whether it should be released. That is why it should go to the Privileges Committee.All of us who have our swipe cards to carry around this building and all of us who use our emails need to know the protocols and the rules by which in the future in the event of a serious breach of security that information may or may not be made available. I can think of no better committee to establish the protocols for this to occur than the Privileges Committee. Although I accept there is a lot of heat around this argument today I passionately believe it is best to go to the Privileges Committee and the sooner it can report back so that the rules are clarified then the better for us as members of Parliament the better for the operation of the press gallery and therefore the better it is for the democracy of New Zealand.