Dotcom questions still waiting, John

John Key will be disappointed if he thinks his Hollywood jaunt spells the end of the Dotcom debacle, says Labour Leader David Shearer.

“There are just too many unanswered questions remaining.  Every day there are fresh revelations that contradict the Prime Minister’s previous assurances.  A limited police investigation and a secret review conducted by the Cabinet Secretary won’t be enough to get to the truth.

“John Key might think that finding a convenient scapegoat or two at the GCSB will be the end of the matter, but these questions aren’t going away:

• Why didn’t the Prime Minister ask for, or receive a full briefing following the February 29 briefing where he was first told about the GCSB’s role?

• John Key was well briefed about Kim Dotcom’s residency status in the days following the January raid.  Why then did he not raise questions about the legality of the GCSB’s involvement at the February 29 briefing?

• Why did Bill English try to supress the GCSB’s involvement and why did he not tell John Key about the Ministerial Certificate he signed to do so?

• What role did the SIS play in this saga, given that they are the intelligence agency tasked with domestic spying on New Zealanders?

• How is it that the Prime Minister’s senior intelligence officials, from the ICG, GCSB, SIS and the DPMC either did not know what was going on, or failed to tell the Prime Minister?

• Was a deliberate decision taken to keep the Prime Minister in the dark, and if so what else have our spies kept from him?

“And here’s another question – just how much pressure has John Key come under while he’s in Hollywood to hang tough and push on with the extradition case against Kim Dotcom?

“The reputation of our intelligence agencies is in tatters – and so is the Prime Minister’s.  Nothing less than the wide-ranging and independent inquiry that I requested in a letter to the Prime Minister last week will be enough to answer the serious questions raised by the Dotcom fiasco.

“John Key needs to start acting like a Prime Minister.  He needs to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess that he has allowed to develop on his watch,” says David Shearer.