Robertson Grant: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8710. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
: 
 There are two words for the member who has just resumed his seat or it may actually be one word: Tranz Rail—Tranz Rail shares. If that member Gerry Brownlee wants to get up and talk about forgetfulness about overseas transactions—this side of the House knows very well the record of his leader on that. The record of his leader on brain fades when it comes to issues like Kim Dotcom—when he was briefed what he knew—exceeds anyone else in this House for forgetfulness. I am going to miss Mr Brownlee from our Friday evening chats which he has pulled out of because apparently I was all over him and he could not get a word in edgeways. Well sorry about that Gerry—bad luck! We will see you back any time you like on the radio on Friday. 
Hon Gerry Brownlee 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. No one is going to call me a coward for getting away from Grant Robertson being all over me. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! That is not a point of order. That is a debatable matter. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: In your dreams Gerry! In your dreams! 
New Zealanders rightly expect a standard of transparency accountability and fairness from their Government. They think that when somebody gets into Government they will take seriously their responsibilities as a Minister. What we have seen in the debacle over the Government Communications Security Bureau’s involvement in Operation Debut the Kim Dotcom case is a complete lack of oversight from the Minister responsible for the GCSB John Key. 
We are asked to believe that an operation that has been described by the police as an unprecedented role for the bureau was not even reported to the Prime Minister. That is what we are being asked to believe. We are being asked to believe that when spying went on at the behest of the FBI the Prime Minister did not know. We are being asked to believe that our spy agencies having worked out on 22 February that they were spying unlawfully did not tell their Minister the Minister in charge. That is what we are being asked to believe. 
But the bottom line is that whichever way we look at it at best John Key’s oversight of this agency has been loose and lax and at worst he is part of a cover-up because what we see in the papers that have been released by the court is a pattern of behaviour that sought to minimise the actions that were being undertaken. There is not much that is more serious in our country than the power to spy on people. That is why the Government Communications Security Bureau Act says that New Zealanders and New Zealand residents in particular are not allowed to be spied upon. 
The Government Communications Security Bureau went into this surveillance operation without even sorting out the residency status of the person who was under surveillance. That is incredibly sloppy. It is not the kind of thing that New Zealanders would expect. Twice during the process—once in mid-December 2011 and once in early January 2012 when the surveillance was still under way—the police became aware that Mr Dotcom was a resident and therefore should not have been under surveillance. That is bad enough but then on 16 February a meeting was held where Ian Fletcher the director of the bureau somebody who reports directly to the Prime Minister was present at a briefing where Kim Dotcom’s residency status was discussed and immediately after which it was realised that the spying had been unlawful. That is Mr Key’s chief spy was there in the room a person whom Mr Key may well know very well in other ways as well and he did not report this to Mr Key. That is what we are asked to believe. If it is true it is a kind of oversight that New Zealanders would be ashamed of. We expect our Prime Minister to actually act on behalf of New Zealanders and play the role that he is meant to play in overseeing the spy agency. He has shown no signs of taking responsibility for his actions. 
This is a Government that is more interested in deals with its mates than it is in governing in the interests of New Zealanders. It is a Government that is so mired in scandals and so focused on its own mates and lining their pockets that it has lost its focus on what it is meant to be doing which is helping make New Zealanders’ lives better. Well I can be absolutely clear with you today that help is on its way. The Labour Party sees this Government in decline and in 2014 New Zealanders will get the Government they deserve—a Government for the people of New Zealand not the mates of the National Party.