Phil Goff responds to SIS report—“The Prime Minster should resign”
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by Anne Russell
November 25, 2014
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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