Prime Minister John Key says he won't be talking to Justice Minister Judith Collins about allegations made against her in Nicky Hager's book Dirty Politics.
He is also denying having anything to do with the release of SIS documents under the Official Information Act to right-wing blogger Cameron Slater, and says he is "totally fine" with his staff accessing other parties' private information, if it is accessible.
But Labour leader David Cunliffe is calling for Mr Key to sack Ms Collins, who has admitted supplying Mr Slater with the name of a civil servant alleged to have leaked details about ministerial spending to Labour and wants him to apologise for the cyber snooping on Labour's computers.
Speaking on Radio NZ this morning, Mr Key categorically denied approving the release of SIS documents to Mr Slater, saying it was handled by SIS officials. As Prime Minister, Mr Key holds responsibility for the spy agency.
"Sometimes I myself I am amazed by stuff I see in the paper that's been released," says Mr Key.
"This is an issue from three years ago that most voters aren't that interested in talking about."
Mr Slater's OIA request was approved the same day it sent; Mr Hager notes in Dirty Politics that OIA requests are "almost never" fulfilled before the statutory 20 working days are up and that "with a sensitive subject, it usually takes considerably longer".
Mainstream media organisations requests for the same information were declined. Mr Key says this was probably down to "the way the request was written".
"Lots of OIAs go out quite quickly. It was nothing to do with me."
Labour MP Grant Robertson says Mr Key's denial is "barely believable".
"The Prime Minister is the only form of public oversight on the SIS. For him to delegate signing off OIAs about briefings for the Leader of the Opposition to unknown staff members is incompetence bordering on negligence," says Mr Robertson.
"To claim the head of the SIS, Warren Tucker, wanted to rush out the OIA is another example of this Government throwing public officials under the bus to detract from its problems... John Key must be the most hands-off minister in charge of the SIS there has ever been."
No questions for Collins
Ms Collins has admitted she sent the name of a civil servant to Mr Slater, who was looking for someone to blame for the leaking of information showing Deputy Prime Minister Bill English had been claiming $700 a week in allowances for living in his own home.
The civil servant, Simon Pleasants, received death threats after his name appeared on Mr Slater's blog. When asked repeatedly by Radio NZ host Guyon Espiner if Ms Collins giving his name to Mr Slater was "okay", Mr Key refused to answer.
"People can see that this is a smear campaign by Nicky Hager."
Mr Key says he won't be bringing up the topic with Ms Collins however, because it is "historic".
"At the end of the day we're five weeks out from an election. People can see that Nicky Hager's made a whole lot of things up in his book. He can see that he can't back a lot of them up."
When reminded by Mr Espiner that Ms Collins – who was told she was on her last warning following the Oravida debacle – admitted leaking the name, Mr Key said he stood by her.
Cunliffe: No decision on police action – yet
As for allegations in the book National Party operatives, with the help of bloggers like Mr Slater, hacked into Labour's website, Mr Key says it's "definitely not true".
"It was nothing to do with us in terms of the initial sort of thing," he says.
What he says did happen was a security hole was found in Labour's site, and curious National Party staff had a look – and that's all.
"If the Wallabies on Tuesday night had left their starting line-up up on their website, on their private website, would the All Blacks go and have a look? The answer is yes. The reason I know that is it's happened."
But Mr Cunliffe says National staff downloaded private information, and that makes it theft.
"If your backdoor's open and someone steals a purse off your kitchen table, that's still theft," he said on Firstline this morning.
"It's clear that it happened; the general manager of the National Party has admitted that it happened and apologised for it, and there apparently are emails from Mr Ede boasting that he did it, so now it's for the Prime Minister simply to accept and admit that or tell us it's not true."
Mr Cunliffe says the book will have an impact on the polls, which already appear to be moving in the left's favour – though they still have a way to go.
"I think most New Zealanders, people you meet in the street, they don't think too much about politics from election to election, then all of a sudden they wake up and they realise they've got an important choice to make. We all do. What kind of country we have over the next three, six, nine years depends on the decision that we make."
He contrasts Mr Hager's portrayal of National running a "dirty tricks machine" against Labour's "vote positive" slogan.
Slater a 'shock jock'
Mr Key has sought to distance himself from Mr Slater, calling him a "force unto himself" who doesn't always agree with National's stance on issues.
"At the end of the day, he's not my guy, Cameron Slater."
The attack on Mr Slater's blog which led to the leak of his private communications, which make up the bulk of Dirty Politics, came after he said the world would be better off without a "feral" West Coast man who died in a car accident.
Mr Key says he doesn't agree with Mr Slater using that kind of language, calling him a "shock jock", but that it's not up to him to critique Mr Slater's other work.
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