By Rebecca Wright
The leader of the opposition, Phil Goff, has locked horns with New Zealand's top spy Warren Tucker.
The two men are at odds over what was discussed at a briefing over the Israeli spy allegations.
During the Israeli spy controversy last month, Labour leader Phil Goff criticised Tucker, the SIS boss, for not briefing him on the SIS investigation.
Today Tucker struck back, releasing file notes of his meeting with Goff to blogger Cameron Slater which show the pair met on March 14th and the third item on the agenda was the investigation into Israeli nationals in Christchurch. So 3 News asked Goff if the topic of Israel came up.
“I don't believe that it did, if that had come up I would have remembered,” he says.
Also in the papers was a report prepared by the SIS on the investigation into Israeli nationals in Christchurch. On it, Tucker made a handwritten note.
Goff says he doesn't have any notes from the meeting but that he'll be taking a third party into any further briefings.
The Prime Minister is standing by his top spy.
Neither Goff or Tucker come out looking clean in this exchange. Someone is either not telling the full story or has had serious memory failure.
3 News