Phil Goff
Labour Spokesperson on Defence

29 July 2013

Minister should condemn spying on journalists

Spying on investigative journalists has no place in the New Zealand Defence Force, and the Minister of Defence should apologise forthwith to journalist Jon Stephenson, whose phone calls were monitored, says Labour’s Defence spokesperson, Phil Goff.

“Defence Minister Jonathan Coleman cannot run and hide on this one. He needs to condemn the practice and instruct the Defence Force to end its categorisation of investigative journalists as ‘subversive’.

“Minister Coleman may not have known about the practice, but he does now, and should tell New Zealanders who has been spied upon and why.

“It is utterly unacceptable for the Defence Force ever to have had such a policy, which as Nicky Hager has stated, Governments likely would have not known about.

“The Defence Force leadership has confused national security with a desire not to be embarrassed by what investigative journalists might discover about any shortcomings on their part.

“That is reminiscent of the Nixon White House and has no place in our political system.

“Journalists and opposition politicians have a role and responsibility to inform the public and hold Governments to account. That role is at the heart of our democratic system, and to describe it as ‘subversive’ is utterly wrong and intolerable.

“That the Defence Force, as recently as last year, was monitoring phone calls made by a journalist and using the spy agencies from other countries to do so, is further evidence of why a full independent inquiry into our spy agencies is needed.

“After the Kim Dotcom debacle and revelations about activities of spy agencies in the US and UK, a wide cross section of New Zealanders have no confidence in our intelligence agencies.

“This latest disclosure only adds to the need for the public inquiry Labour has been calling for. The Government should be focused on the transparent operations of these key agencies, rather than ramming through an extension to their powers,” Phil Goff said.

ENDS

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