Key misleads about role in radio show

John Key today tried to downplay his role and the role of his office in the Radio Live show "The PM’s Hour" despite emails that show his office decided who would be on the programme, re-wrote the brief for the show and provided the language seeking an opinion from the Electoral Commission on the legality of the show, Labour’s Deputy Leader Grant Robertson says.

The show, which aired in the run up to the November election, breached electoral broadcasting law but was not deemed to be election advertising.

"During questioning in the House today the Prime Minister claimed not to be aware that his office was intimately involved in how the programme would be run,” Grant Robertson said.

“However emails from his communications manager - tabled in Parliament – reveal John Key’s office was deeply involved in determining the content of the show and in the wording of an email that was sent by Radio Live to the Electoral Commission.

"The Electoral Commission made clear that the reason this programme was not an election advertisement was because Radio Live had editorial control.

“What these emails show is that Mr Key and his office determined who the guests were and re-wrote the brief for the content of the programme. That sounds like a fair degree of control to me.

“I will be writing to the Electoral Commission to ask whether it was aware of the extent of the input into the programme from the Prime Minister’s 0ffice and whether that might alter its opinion on the programme not being an election advertisement.

“Mr Key has tried to wash his hands of the law breaking. The emails also show that his Communications Manager, having written the email that Radio Live sent to the Electoral Commission, then expressed that it was ‘useful’ that the Commission had said it would be the broadcaster who would bear any responsibility if the programme breached the law.

“The Prime Minister and his staff knew all along that this would be a highly political programme. John Key now needs to take responsibility for his role and acknowledge that this was most definitely not an ‘election free zone’,” Mr Robertson said.