Shearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 31 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12105. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]3.DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition)to thePrime Minister: Does he stand by his statement that “when my Chief of Staff speaks to someone they speak for me”?Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):Yes.David Shearer: Did his chief of staff ask Parliamentary Service for information on or records of phone calls from the parliamentary precinct as part of the Henry review?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I think it is important for the record just to relay what my chief of staff did. So effectively there are two things. MrEagleson emailed the offices of the Ministers who had received the report to inform them that on my wishes they should comply with the inquiry and secondly on 9 May he emailed Geoff Thorn at Parliamentary Service to confirm that I wished him to make available the inquiryrecords in relation to Ministers and their staff. At no point did he ask for information about journalists. That would not have been appropriate or right. He did not do so and nor did the inquiry want that information.David Shearer: Under what authority was WayneEagleson operating when he contacted Parliamentary Service asking for phone and email records to be released?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: In two areas. The first was that I had issued terms of reference for the inquiry which were put into the public domain and secondly on the basis that he had written to those individual Ministers requiring and telling them and their staff to comply with my wishes. He was making sure that Parliamentary Service understood that.David Shearer: Why was it not the function of the Henry inquiry to do that which he himself had set up?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The Henry inquiry followed the broad parameters that were established by me but my chief of staff made sure that all of my Ministers and their staff understood that it was our expectation that they would comply.David Shearer: Who asked Parliamentary Service for a log of Andrea Vance’s phone calls to Ministers from her parliamentary extension to be released to the Henry inquiry?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Nobody. So—[Interruption ]—nobody. And the paper trail—Hon Member: He’s lying.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well actually funnily enough buggerlugs I am not but anyway. [Interruption ]Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Prime Minister will continue with the answer please.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I am more than happy to show the email traffic that supports the view of the Government. What is clear is that the administrator of the inquiry emailed the Parliamentary Service and said in the email: “We are interested in any contact between the Ministers’ personal landlines and these numbers.” They were the numbers in relation to the journalists. What then came back were two reports. The first of those reports was in fact the phone numbers made to the journalist or sent back the other way. There was nothing in that report. A second report was also sent which was the phone records of the journalist. I quote from the inquiry administrator when he received that information: “Many thanks for this. Let’s be clear we did not request the second report you’ve attached here i.e. the one showing all calls to and from the numbers of interest. We are not interested in looking at that.” They received it they never looked at it they never in any way accessed it and they rejected the fact that it should have been sent to them.David Shearer: Just to clarify in the light of what he just read out does “contact between” not mean both parties in terms of the contact between both Andrea Vance and the Ministers?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: What it means is not the journalist’s records. It means the phone contact between the Minister and the journalist.David Shearer: What role did the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) play in the Henry inquiry?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Well the inquiry reported to the head of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the director of the GCSB because it was in relation to the leaking of theKitteridge report. To the best of my knowledge that is the only role that it played.David Shearer: Given that the Henry report said that the bureau played “a substantial role particularly in the gathering of records” as the Minister responsible can he tell the public exactly what that role was?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I have absolutely no clue what the member is quoting from or in relation to but he is probably mixing up things as he often does—Mr SPEAKER: Order!Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The reality is as a summary that the terms of the inquiry were set up by me. The person who conducted the inquiry was Mr Henry with an assistant. To the best of my knowledge he carried out all of the work to look at that and ultimately wrote the report that went to those two individuals who had effectively commissioned it.David Shearer: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister doubted what I was saying and where I was quoting it from. I was actually quoting it from appendix 3 the processes used—Mr SPEAKER: Order! If the member is seeking leave to table a document that may—David Shearer: Could I seek leave to table this report that actually indicates that.Mr SPEAKER: Leave is sought. Is there any objection to the tabling of that particular document? There appears to be none. It can be tabled.Document by leave laid on the Table of the House.David Shearer: Is any information including phone records and emails obtained in the course of the Henry inquiry being held by the GCSB or any other intelligence agency?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: No not to the best of my recall.David Shearer: Will the questions about the involvement of the bureau in this particular issue plus the allegations of the journalist Jon Stephenson plus the multiple objections by submitters on the GCSB bill make the Prime Minister reconsider passing the bill and instead have an independent inquiry?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: The GCSB for the purpose of clarity did not play a role in gathering information or storing information. What the bureau made clear and why it is in that report is who on the bureau side received the report.Hon David Parker: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister in reading from the email earlier was quoting an official document. I would ask that he table it.Mr SPEAKER: Was the Prime Minister reading from an official document?Rt Hon JOHN KEY: Yes I was.Mr SPEAKER: Then will the Prime Minister so table it.Rt Hon JOHN KEY: I will. I seek leave to table the document.Mr SPEAKER: There is no need for leave.Document laid on the Table of the House.