By 3 News online staff
The Dotcom saga continues to dog Prime Minister John Key, with revelations his office was told about the internet entrepreneur in the middle of last year.
The scandal is providing plenty of fodder for the Opposition. New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters is on the attack, calling for Mr Key’s resignation.
“He has said he’s going to hold his ministers to the highest possible standards, he said about people like Shane Jones… ‘He’s got some serious questions to answer.’ Well Mr Key’s got some serious questions to answer now and frankly my statement is if he’s prepared to sack others, why don’t you sack yourself?”
Labour Party leader David Shearer took a less vociferous approach when speaking to Firstline this morning.
“There is a pattern emerging here of basically back-covering, bungling and possibly not telling the truth, not being completely upfront,” he said.
He believes this is not the last controversial discovery to come from the Dotcom saga – now nearly nine months old.
“There is more to come on this, we need a full independent inquiry on the Dotcom affair because quite frankly people do not have confidence in our intelligence agencies," says Mr Shearer. "I think they’re beginning to lose trust in the Prime Minister who sits on top as well.”
Mr Shearer says the controversy around the GCSB also impacts the international reputation of the country’s intelligence agencies.
Mr Key says his office didn't pass on a message about Kim Dotcom's application to buy a mansion north of Auckland. He says it's not surprising that he wasn't told as it was only a small matter at the time.
“The guy’s in his electorate, he has the biggest mansion in Auckland… I just fail to understand how he could not know of him or certainly not know of the operation and details of the operation later on,” says Mr Shearer.
Mr Peters is taking the Labour leader’s sentiment one step further – saying the Prime Minister had to have known.
“If someone received a serious call from a senior minister like Simon Power to do with a mansion purchase in your electorate, and you’re Prime Minister and that message isn’t passed on, then that’s a sacking offense, that’s why I say he did know,” he says.
“Everybody around him, all the senior staff members knew, everybody apparently at the head of certain ministries knew, the head of the security agencies all knew, the police knew, but [John Key] didn’t know. This cannot be, surely.”
3 News