Phil Goff on SIS report—“The Prime Minister should resign"

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Former Labour leader Phil Goff and current leader Andrew Little met with reporters today to discuss the apology given to him by the current head of the SIS, for the SIS’s release of confidential intelligence to the Prime Minister’s office, on Goff’s meeting with former SIS head Warren Tucker.

Although Goff accepts the apology, he is demanding accountability from John Key on this breach of regulations. As the Prime Minister seeks bipartisan support on legislation to strengthen the SIS, Goff pointed out the “huge element of hypocrisy in the Prime Minister now asking the Labour Party to adopt a bipartisan position, when he tolerated—and I believe concurred with—the direct use by his office of confidential material…for improper and unethical reasons.”

Goff noted that Key’s claims to ignorance over the Dirty Politics affair demonstrated at best incompetent management of his staff, but believed there was no way his staff would have breached intelligence regulations without full implicit or explicit backing from the Prime Minister.

"The Prime Minister should resign…if he can’t own up to it, if he can’t apologise, if he can’t give the guarantee, then my belief is that he ought not to be Prime Minister of New Zealand,” said Goff.

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ENDS

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