Peters Winston: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumePeters Winston: General Debate[Sitting date: 07 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12443. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon WINSTON PETERS (Leader—NZ First):I moveThat the House take note of miscellaneous business . Within the last 24 hours we have learnt of outrageous activity relating to the police investigation of the so-called teacup tape recorded during the election campaign 2011. A cameraman left a tape recorder on a cafe table where John Key and John Banks sat. It was a media stunt of course in trying to organise a coalition Government. To prevent publication of the tape’s contents John Key complained to the police. The police were under pressure to complete the investigation and we understand that the Prime Minister’s chief of staff was kept “in the loop” during the investigation.New Zealand First has learnt that the police recorded discussions to seize the telephone records of a private citizen so that they could lay charges against the cameraman. That citizen was me. That is right—my telephone records were going to be seized in an operation that was sparked by the Prime Minister’s office and monitored by the Prime Minister’s office.This is not Zimbabwe; this is New Zealand. If there had been a security issue at stake I would have handed over my cellphone records and any other records to the authorities immediately but there was not.There is information in a police file that says that police would have taken my phone records to lay charges and make a case against Bradley Ambrose. If MrEagleson Mr Key’s chief of staff was being kept “in the loop” during the investigation it stands to reason that the boss John Key would also have been in the loop as well. That is perhaps the reason he backed off demanding a prosecution: he would have had to admit that his politically motivated use of the police led to a private citizen’s phone records being accessed illegally. And it is the reason why today when asked that critical question he refused to answer without advice.I was nowhere near the cafe. I have far better things to do.There is another element to this gross invasion of privacy—a rather sinister element. Why would a group of people in the Prime Minister’s office funded by the taxpayers be involved in a police investigation during an election campaign? This was not a leak from a State intelligence agency. This was not a matter of national security or even a matter of life and death; it was about a petulant Prime Minister trying to save his face and his backside.Now we have to ask: did he actually sign a warrant or was he prepared to? Did the police look at my phone records anyway? How did they know that they had to seize them to carry out a successful prosecution? Why did the police zero in on me for example?After the recorder was found a voice on the tape broadcast onYouTube pointed out that a guy in a New Zealand First T-shirt was present outside the cafe. That meant thatNew Zealand First was suspected at the outset despite the fact that people wearing T-shirts with “New Zealand First” on them are legion all over the country in their tens of thousands.At the time I was a private citizen. This information is contained in briefing notes handed from the Wellington police to the Auckland police. The officer told his counterpart that whatever they decided to do they were to brief MrEagleson. This is not Zimbabwe. Today I am asking the Prime Minister and the police to come clean and produce all the documents relating to my records and the teacup tape investigation. As we have found out the Prime Minister’s office was donkey deep in violations of privacy and guess what? The same WayneEagleson has his fingerprints and the Prime Minister’s DNA over all the files.In my years in this House under eight Prime Ministers I have never experienced such a personal outrage and an absolute abuse of power by the executive. It had nothing to do with anything other than an election stunt. This was a humble private citizen. This is corruption that goes to the core of this country’s activities under this Prime Minister and every member of this House should be joining New Zealand First in condemning this in the strongest possible terms.