April 12, 2013
Spy oversight not up to mark
Labour leader, David Shearer, says the prime minister’s oversight of the spy agencies strains credibility.
The Mana Party has called for apologies and compensation for the 88 New Zealand citizens or residents illegally spied on by the Government Communications Security Bureau.
Some of those arrested in the Urewera raids in 2007 are also questioning whether they were spied on.
Mr Shearer says as the minister in charge, John Key was aware by last July but he did nothing about it.
“This is amazing to me. If you thought that there was illegal spying, the first thing you would do is say ‘shut it down and investigate it’. Instead he says ‘keep me informed.’ That’s not leadership or any kind of oversight that we expect from the Prime Minister on our intelligence agency. We need to have a lot more definite security than that,” David Shearer says.
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