Written By:
Anthony R0bins - Date published:
12:49 pm, July 31st, 2013 - 64 comments
Categories: accountability, dpf, john key, making shit up, Media, Parliament, spin, Spying -
Tags: lies, privacy, privacy under attack, Spying
Key’s loyal retainers are trying to keep him out of the Vance spying scandal. Naturally David Farrar is the most pathetic – Imperator Fish has the last word on that subject (a must read). Turning now to actual journalists, here’s Audrey Young:
Key stands clear of inquiry fallout
Prime Minister John Key is seeking to distance himself from damaging fallout from David Henry’s inquiry into the leak of the GCSB spy agency report, just as his controversial GCSB bill returns to Parliament.
Mr Key has written to the Speaker David Carter to put on the record his disappointment that phone records and swipe card records of the journalist who received the leaked report, Andrea Vance, were handed over to the inquiry that Mr Key’s department commissioned.
And Mr Henry himself weighed in last night to reinforce the statement that he neither requested nor sought the journalist’s phone records. …
Mr Key said in his letter to Mr Carter that on finding out that Parliamentary Service had voluntarily supplied the journalist’s phone records “I was deeply concerned and troubled by this news”.
Sorry Audrey – Key doesn’t get to “stand clear” this scandal, he created it. Remember this, from just 5 days ago?
No action over phone log access attempt
No action will be taken against David Henry for attempting to access phone records of a journalist as he tried to find out who leaked a sensitive report into Government spying, Prime Minister John Key says.
There we have John Key himself acknowledging that Henry requested the Vance phone records (contrary to what Henry is now claiming). This wasn’t a Parliamentary Services “stuff up”. You don’t pass over three months worth of phone records by accident. They were passed over because they were requested by John Key’s enquiry, as he acknowledged above.
However speaking in Korea today Key said he did not believe Henry, a former top public servant brought in to find the leaker, had impinged on any media freedoms and no action would be taken against him.
He said Henry also would be considered for doing future Government reports.
Henry had been asked to carry out an enquiry using terms of reference given to him by the prime minister’ office. Nobody complained about those terms, Key said.
Key set the terms, no one complained (this was all in Key’s office – who the Hell was in a position to “complain”?). Henry was following instructions, nothing to see here, move along.
“He then went out and did his own thing. I wasn’t involved in any of that,” Key said today, adding that he made it clear to Henry that he expected access records to be accessed.
If anyone can work out what that means do let us know.
While no action would be taken regarding Henry’s actions, a different approach might be taken next time.
“Maybe if we go away next time and write another enquiry we’ll be really, really specific in the terms” of reference.
Key said that when the report emerged while he was on a trip to China the media had been “screaming at me” to hold an enquiry because they believed the Government had leaked the report.
This was all done at the direction of Key’s office (Wayne Eagleson –“If you speak to him you speak to me”). They’re trying to throw Parliamentary Services under the bus, but this is Key’s scandal start to finish. Final word to Alistair Thompson in his must read piece today:
But the amount of damage that has been done here should not be underestimated and it will not go away quickly. The Press Gallery will remember this.
Coming on top of the months of obfuscation and outright lying and evasiveness over every aspect of this story from the Kim Dotcom raids and who knew about them when, to the illegal GCSB spying, to the appointment of a child-hood friend of the PM’s as GCSB Director and now the Andrea Vance and Peter Dunne affair – we will remember.
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Cool… watch Shearer mumble his way through it.
Whoop, whoop! Terrain warning, divert now. Whoop whoop!
not diverting shit. This is hardly going to go away quickly. Just pointing out the incompetence of Labour to smash National with this.
Thx for your post Anthony ..undoubtedly just as it is. The Alistair Thompson link is a must-must-read for its clarity of summation.
How does Dunne tolerate this ignominy ? Somehow I keep hoping he will have an epiphany and vote against the GCSB bill — this is his last chance to be remembered for anything decent.
Also noticeable absence of anything to do with these issues on Stuff this morning — is this part of the secret rumblings maybe ?? Is an explosion coming ?
What makes you think that Peter ‘the Hairdo’ Dunne will not be standing again at the 2014 election, everything i have read and seen of Him would suggest that He is going to…
now Stuff has something .. first all day ..
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8986200/Release-of-journalists-phone-swipe-card-records-sparks-probe
Tracey Watkins also has another opinion piece on Stuff that I read early this morning on the situation re Press Gallery reporters – but it was not highlighted on the main Stuff page.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/8984706/Truth-a-long-time-coming
Smells like a limited hangout to me.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout
And the ‘snow flakes fall ever thicker’, i will assume at this early stage that the House speaker will now ‘protect’ the Slippery little Shyster from further probing during Parliaments Question Time by simply pointing at the Privileges Committee Inquiry being the place to ask such questions,
Delay, Deny, Denigrate, and abuse, cover up the truth until such time as the heat of the matter dies down, then release a weak,insipid untrue account of events which exonerates the Prime Ministers Office….
I hope the media pounce and hold on this because the apathetic public needs a goddamn wake-up.
i have posted this comment elsewhere today but it is topical so i will repeat it at the risk of boring everybody,
Here’s what i think happened, and to a certain extent the trail can be followed albeit it does get confusing,
Slippery the PM set up the inquiry giving Henry his instructions and telling Him that if He needed any help to ask Eagleson,
Henry went to Dunne and asked for His phone records which Dunne refused, it is Dunne’s contention that Henry then went to Parliamentary Services but i do not believe that to be the case,
i believe that Henry went to Eaggleson with the request that He (Eagglson), get the phone records which Eagglson did which makes Henry’s claim of not having asked for the phone records about 1/2 true,
Yesterday at question time in the Parliament Russell Norman directly asked the prime Minister whether or not His(Slippery’s), Chief of Staff had in fact asked parliamentary Services for the phone record,
The Slippery little Shyster answered with words to this effect, ”i am not aware if my Chief of Staff asked Parliamentary Services for those phone records”, ”but i apologize if He did”, WTF,
The WTF of course is mine, and, i wouldn’t expect the media, television or any other, to hold the Slippery little Shyster to account for what is becoming obvious as from television, to print, to radio, they are all, while issuing the odd ”hurrumph” as you have quoted in this post, to a man/woman running with the ‘Line’ naughty Parliamentary Services for having released the phone records,
What i see is the usual ‘media snow flake shower’ accusing the wrong people of wrongdoing while allowing the Prime Minister complete exoneration when in actual fact it is becoming glaringly obvious that it was the Prime Ministers office that requested/demanded that Parliamentary Services release those phone records…
“Blame the help”, eh? Cowards.
Have you thought that this might be deliberate.
Feed Labour a superficial poll bounce on an issue that will be forgotten in a few months time in order to keep Labour liability #1 at the helm. This would ensure a National victory at the next election with the election campaign resembling a blood sport.
Absolute genius.
Turning the whole media community against you, that’s genius? Riiiiight….
KK have a cup of tea and a sit down your redneck has veins ready to pop!
Might be deliberate ? Which if it were would mean we live in a fascistic oligarchy.
“Not boverred” KK ?
Lets not forget the press conference when key asked journalists if they really wanted their emails revealled???
Yep! The journalist’s must be wondering if this is the tip of the surveillance iceberg…an iceberg that will likely sink the bad ship National. Certainly their captain doesn’t have both oars in the water and is looking decidedly drunk at the helm.
Its more than just a scandal.
Kweewee has gathered around him a whole gang of hairy assed schoolboy familiars who cant read and dont give a stuff as long as they bask in the glow of the chosen one.
Well its starting to smell like a dead mackerel in the moonlight.
When there are fullscale nincompoops like David Carter giving out carte blance to any dweeb in a suit then the parliament and our democracy is in real trouble.
David Henry – The guy who wrote to Labour before the 2005 election and was ignored… He made a bad call… he changed the rules… Now … It’s all different.
He has a long history of being a highly principled player – pity self serving defenders of corruption only listen to him when it suites their self serving corrupt agenda.
Ahhh….wee burt reminds us that nine years ago Labour did something that he considered wrong. How suite.
Keys promise of higher standards just another lie Burt!
I posted this on the Media Honeymoon thread, but it is also very relevant here – and a Must Listen IMO.
Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s excellent interview on Nine to Noon this morning, in which he considered that the checking of phone records etc of MPs/Ministers by the Henry Inquiry was in itself a breach of Parliamentary Privilege.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2563981/phone-records-handed-over-during-gcsb-investigation
He covers this in the first two minutes or so of the interview, but the whole interview is well worth listening to as he gives an excellent overview of the history of the Parliamentary Services, their role, their culture; and of particular relevance here – his views (not particularly complimentary) on how the Henry Inquiry was set up and its wide TORs, and Henry’s lack of legal qualifications; and the wider ramifications of the whole fiasco vis a vis democracy.
If Palmer’s points are picked up (as they should be IMO) this can of worms gets bigger and bigger.
An excellent statement from the journos’ union:
Journalists’ union condemns release of phone records:
The Parliamentary Service’s decision to hand over a reporter’s telephone records to the Henry Inquiry strikes at the core of journalistic freedom, says the union that represents journalists, the EPMU.
Although Mr Henry has stated he did not request the information and returned it immediately, the fact it was made available is deeply concerning.
Protection of sources is a key ethical consideration for journalists. When sources know they can provide information to journalists without fear of retribution, they are able to hold authorities to account.
If government agencies are able to delve into journalists’ communications, it will seriously impede the flow of information to journalists and have a chilling effect on media freedom.
The revelations are particularly concerning in the context of allegations that the New Zealand Defence Force monitored journalist Jon Stephenson’s communications in Afghanistan, and at a time when the Government intends to pass a contentious law which will allow the GCSB to legally spy on New Zealanders.
The EPMU welcomes the strong statements made by the Speaker and the Prime Minister criticising the release of Andrea Vance’s telephone records.
However, this release occurred because of an investigation initiated by the Prime Minister, whose office was active in advising the Parliamentary Service to supply Peter Dunne’s phone records. It is likely the Parliamentary Service would have felt under pressure to be as helpful to the inquiry as possible.
The public and the news media need reassurance that the Government is committed to the highest ideals of democracy. There must be a full and open inquiry into both the release of Andrea Vance’s telephone records and the alleged monitoring of Jon Stephenson.
It is clear we cannot trust Government agencies to look into their own activities. In the interests of openness and rebuilding public trust, the Government must also review the operations of its intelligence agencies before giving the GCSB further powers.
Who in parliamentary services authorised the handing over and/or handed them over. There must be a who or whos
Dunne is such a coward, he spills the beans to Vance and Dunne probably feels betrayed by Vance for doing her job. The PM goes tut tut and Dunne cannot pretend that he did not open his gob. The PM is not interested enough in getting to the bottom of the contents of Dunne’s emails to do with the Kitteridge report because Key would then be a vote short.
Does Key think that the GCSB legislation is going to be a fix all for any incident which threatens his government?
The biggest attack in this country is occurring in the Beehive by the government.
Oh the irony. A contractor arguably reading the request provide logs and other data he should not of.
Ironic as the PM considers that arguable legality to be the new low standard necessary for all government. Yes, you guess it, if you can find an opinion that argues that something that is obviously illegal, isn’t then you can whitewash it. Now the PM is now having to defend just that, that he is not responsible because a contractor arguably acted lawfully when providing his inquiry with logs about a journalist. Arguable there now is no press freedom, welcome to dictatorship Aotearea.
We seem to be learning a lot of things from the USA in a hurry.
Key is a USA stooge.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/8986200/Keys-office-ordered-records-released
Prime Minister John Key has confirmed his chief of staff told Parliamentary Service staff to supply records to a ministerial inquiry after the department initially refused to cooperate.
OOPS
Wayne Eagleson is the culprit.he needs to be questioned at the select committee.looks like Farrar got it wrong again.
Eagleson and Dunne have had a close working relationship, Dunne as revenue minister and Eagleson at the IRD.
Exactly. By muddling the investigation, Eagleson has put the content of the documents out of the picture. In US cop show parlance, he allegedly imposed himself on a ongoing investigation into a national security leak – the kitteridge report. His motives? friendship, loyalty to Key? and even keeping his job should Dunne be forced to walk? Key should excise the cancer sooner than later.
Up set the PM and you (chief of staff) could be looking for a new job, this is why I think that the person was following instructions from the top. Sometimes there is no pleasing your boss.
Uh oh, Key’s rebuttal, from the link…
But Key said it was clear to everyone that the request was in relation to ministers, and not journalists.
“He was clear that was for minsters and staff, not journalists. Everyone understood that was outside the terms of reference.”
Apparently “everyone” did not…
Another flimsy cover-up lie.
‘
Ooooh, and another one for the list. Thank’s John, I’m lovin’ it . . .
. . . if it was “clear to everyone” then why did his own Chief of Staff put the pressure on Parliamentary Services and, speaking of Wayne “If you speak to him you speak to me” Eagleson, what’s his role in all this? Didn’t our infrequent but entirely welcome contributor “CrosbyTextor” mention something about a stitch-up to knobble Dunne . . . amusing at the time, perhaps prescient also, even if it was Kevin Taylor who was identified as being part of that “while he’s overseas” covert PR operation.
Good to see the media get its act together over this. Oddly enough, it can’t usually be bothered bestirring itself since abandoning its Fourth Estate principles in some corporate profit-driven chase for eyeballs, but when the government’s actions impact directly on that pursuit, watch out. Perhaps now the spotlight will turn on our Prime Minister, John Key, and his performance across all his portfolios. Is there one he hasn’t mangled? So far as his handling of the GCSB/SIS portfolio is concerned, he has, in effect, been so incompetent as to be commit treason. What scant confidence the public may have had in its guardians, including even, to some extent, the armed forces, has been trashed thanks to his clumsy mendacity and bumbling, mumbling obfuscation.
I think its becoming increasingly apparent across wider sections of the public, as Alistair Thompson points out, that we are dealing with a “rogue government”. Now that its true nature has finally been exposed directly to the typically indolently cooperative media, attention might also turn to how John Key’s tenure has impacted upon those National Ltd™ has already victimised.
Since when do PS staff follow instructions from the Prime Minister’s office around other MP’s metadata?
Rob/CV: The “everyone” being the staff being set up for blame for a ‘mistake’. The PS would have been correct to pass on Dunne’s data, but went too far with Vance’s, in this version.
I thought we had JK when I saw the headline; just needs all the ends tied up to rule out the obvious rebuttals. These liars are expert liars after all. 😉
Yup self interest rules. It was ways going to the the p gallery feeling threatened to start looking deeper
Yup self interest rules. It was ways going to the the p gallery feeling threatened to start looking deeper
From today’s question time in the Parliament, the smoke clears a little as both Russell Norman and David Shearer take turns at making the Slippery little Shyster ‘spin’,
And, doesn’t He do it well our Prime Minister, ‘spin’ that is, changing direction at will all the while declaring ‘i have no responsibility’,
The gist of the Prime Ministers replies, His chief of Staff, Eaggleson told all Ministers who had access to the report, the contents of which where leaked to Vance the Dominion Post reporter, to allow the Henry inquiry to access their phone records,
His Chief of Staff who emailed Parliamentary Services with a request that they provide to the Henry inquiry phone records between all Ministers who had access to the leaked report and the DomPost reporter Vance,
This the Prime Minister now claims absolves Him from responsibility as what the Eaggleson email really ‘Meant’ was that they only wanted the Ministers in questions side of the phone record TO the DomPost reporter Vance, and that the email didn’t ‘Mean’ that the inquiry wanted the DomPost reporter Vance’s phone records TO the Ministers in question,
That absolves the Prime Minister of nothing, and my view is that Parliamentary Services should withhold all service to the Prime Ministers Office until such time as He makes a full apology to Parliamentary Services for having released the phone records of Vance to the Henry inquiry…
I agree that key doesn’t do spin well – he’s a liar and an ‘off the cuff’er and those two attributes always end up in trouble. He’ll keep telling more and more lies to cover up the original lies and the story or spin will get more nonsensical and stupid. Time to bring the hammer down on this turd and squash him politically – not even the mythical middlenz like shitspinning liars.
Imp Fish nails Farrar’s hypocrisy in such an elegant way that it is a masterpiece. Praise Jebus for blogs like that, and this, for keeping me sane.
There is to be a public enquiry into the whole affair.
So, if Key is lying, it should come out.
interesting that Dunne’s name is not on the list .. ??
Perhaps they should get someone independent to set the terms of the enquiry this time. Somehow letting John Key and his staff do that last time has just looked extremely shifty to ANY outside observation – wouldn’t you agree?
You realise that this will be the
third(oops fourth) enquiry into this pile of crap. The first being the whitewash from our ancient Inspector General of using the GCSB to bug DotComEver hear of a Chief of Staff doing something without making sure it is what his immediate senior actually wants. Nothing in writing of course. This is the most corrupt government in our history.
From the mouth of Peter ‘the Hairdo’ Dunne via RadioNZ National while i was getting tonight’s dinner in the oven,
”Henry came to Me asking for My phone records so that they could be compared with Vance’s phone records”, unquote,
Is Dunne creating mischief by telling porkies or is Dunne telling the truth???, if that was the truth from Dunne then it becomes obvious that the Prime Ministers claim made in the Parliament today that Eaggleson’s email was intended to solicit from Parliamentary Services only Ministers phone records is an utter and total piece of bulls**t,
If what Dunne is publicly saying is true then it becomes obvious that my previous assertion that it was Henry who approached Eaggleson for help as the Prime Minister had told him to do and Eagglson sent the email to Parliamentary Services acting on the instruction of the Prime Minister which he had previously given to Eagglson,
As we all have come to expect, John Armstrong but BrainsWeak, the titular head of the Fifth Column of New Zealand Jonolism and Herald political commentator made a brief appearance on RadioNZ’s afternoons with Jim Mora and stuck strictly to the Slippery little Shysters ‘spin’ that the release of Vance’s phone records was the fault of Parliamentary Services,
It appears also that it wasn’t only the Parliamentary phone systems records that they went after, there appears to have been at least an attempt to get at Her cell phone data as well…
I do care quite a bit about what is going on in the country and the direction, but I don’t think I care much about this issue and haven’t found many outside of the politically interested group that do either.
Politicians and Journolists all swim in the same shallow mud filled pond and there is only a marginal difference as to which I trust less, the polictical jounolists churn out an endless supply of dross and are happy to cut stories so as to make them fit their narrative and love being part of the story. Vance allegedly published a leaked copy of an unreleased report so her paper could get the ‘scoop’, everyone screamed for an enquiry and now are crying that they might have been enquired into.
The more I think about it I’m starting to wonder how healthy this secret relationship between politicians and jouronolists really is, all the nudge nudge wink wink, leak this, cosy that, how does anyone know what sort of influence the press gallery hold over MP’s? It could well be an environment riddled with corruption, is it time that all correspondence between jounolists and MP’s to be published? Everyone is vigilant to the influence of business, foreign powers, unions, donors etc but how about some sunlight on what goes on here. Jounolists are always telling us that we must trust them, they know what the real story is, they are so important, time for them to be honest themselves!
i am amused, ”but you don’t care”…
Ha ha, by the end I was thinking that to! I suppose I care less about what may or may not have been leaked, released, requested because it’s politians and journalists and cared more about the secrecy going on and why shouldn’t we get to see all records.
Lolz, i am amused that you don’t care and then go on to a list of Government corruption that has never been exposed in this country, except where that corruption is carried out openly such as in the Sky city casino deal between that organization and the present Government,
i am sure others could add a fair few more instances to the above as well,
Of course the fact that this Government’s accessing of a member of the media’s phone records by accident or design whether legal or illegal will soon be possible for any Prime Minister to order once the GCSB Legislation is passed in the House has not it would seem entered your calculation of what is or isn’t of interest,
Once such Legislation is passed the uncovering of any of the corruption that would catch your interest will become just that much more unlikely because any Government will know who each journalist has spoken to at any given time, thus have every opportunity to catch and punish those who would expose such corruption befor that exposure became public…
Yes, but up til recently, the press gallery have sucked up the the NAct government. A rift between them and mutual suspicions could have a lasting impact on how the government is reported.
I read Imperator Fish’s post that Anthony referred to in his opening post. It is Must Read stuff.
If I were Farrar, I would’ve cringed at Scott’s razor sharp observations.
http://www.imperatorfish.com/2013/07/he-delivers-and-how.html
The most intriguing aspect of the email that Key tabled in the House today is the date on it: 30 May.
The inquiry was announced on 15 April and completed on 5 June.
So the inquiry was in its sixth week when Henry finally requested the phone records on 30 May; the very same day referred to phone records in the House. Intriguing.
Yep. Looks like a limited hangout to me.
Listening to RadioNZ National this morning it appears that i have missed AN EMAIL, i describe the contents of what i though was THE email from the Prime Ministers Chief of staff Eaggleson to Parliamentary Services,
The Email i describe above and how i describe it is pretty much correct, but there appears now to be a second Email from Eaggleson to the Parliamentary Service of an entirely different nature,
The second Email from Eaggleson to the Parliamentary Service is said to contain such niceties as a demand to Parliamentary Services from the Office of the Prime Minister that they accord the Henry inquiry access to any information He requests and hand over ‘any relevant data’,
So the plot thickens, i better track down the actual words of this Email…
At some point in the examination of Slippery the Prime Minister’s entrails surrounding the Vance phone records scandal Russell or Dave should ask Him this question,
Did anyone from the Prime Ministers Office or the Henry inquiry itself at any time ask the cell phone providers of both Dunne and Vance for access to the records of their cell phones,
Now that should get the Slippery one ‘spinning’ at full speed…
This what separates farrar from whaleoil. Ironic that he posted it from usa.
Now that is sad, the head of Parliamentary Services has resigned, as we learn today from questioning of the Prime Minister by Russell Norman today, there are 2 emails from the Prime Ministers Chief of Staff to Parliamentary Services which using different language ask/demand that Parliamentary Services hand over data to the Henry inquiry,there are also 22 unreleased emails from the Henry inquiry to [public services,
Possibly buried in the 22 emails that the Henry inquiry sent to Parliamentary Services is the real truth of what the Henry inquiry was trying to elicit from Parliamentary Services,
Steven Joyce, speaking on behalf of the absent Prime Minister at question time today refused Russell Norman’s request that the 22 Henry emails be released and tabled in the Parliament,
How toxic these 22 Henry emails are to the Prime Ministers reputation,(haha yes joke),will probably decide whether or not these emails are released…
Peter Dunne on Prime News just now has just confirmed what i was alluding to in a couple of comments about Dunne and Vance’s personal mobile phone data being sought by the Henry inquiry,
Dunne says that Henry came to Him during the inquiry with questions about specific conversations made between Dunne and Vance on their mobile phones…
PS, these may have been specific text conversations as opposed to voice ones, Dunne on Prime-News tonight did not differentiate…