Annette King interviewed on TVNZ's Breakfast this morning - 26 July

TRANSCRIPT: Labour Deputy Leader, Annette King interviewed on TV ONE's Breakfast at 7:20am this morning.

The full length video interview can also be seen on tvnz.co.nz at, tvnz.co.nz/Breakfast

ANNETTE KING interviewed by RAWDON CHRISTIE

Rawdon: Now top secret spies, numerous passports and alleged espionage all sat in a disaster torn city. Sounds like a great Bond plot, but no it's the Israeli spy saga that played out last week. How much did the government share with the Opposition, and was the investigation handled well. With her view as Labour Deputy Leader, Annette King. Good morning Annette. First of all before we jump into Israel I just want to ask you about the sort of brouhaha about Ohariu. This is Gareth Hughes the Green MP saying that he's come to an agreement with Labour over the electorate vote versus the party vote. Vote for Charles Chauvel and vote for a party vote for the Greens.

Annette King - Deputy Leader Labour Party: No I think you've probably missed the press release that came out from the Greens yesterday saying there was no such agreement. The Greens Party always campaigned for the party vote, and they made it clear that no deal's been done with Labour between Charles Chauvel and Gareth Hughes. So they, for example in my own seat, Russel Norman stands. His name's on the ballot paper but he always campaigns for the party vote. So I think that was misreporting.

Rawdon: Well regardless of the press release you know Gareth Hughes has been very honest in saying that he's being upfront about this. Maybe it's not a deal, maybe it's an understanding, maybe it's not formal agreement but the reality is that he's pushing in one direction here is he not?

Annette: Well I spose it's nothing like the deal that's already been done between National and ACT.

Rawdon: Or that's just an understanding as well, it's just not a reality of MMP though for all parties.

Annette: It's not like the deal done between National and Peter Dunne where they've made a formal agreement, and as far as Labour's concerned and the Greens themselves, there's been no such agreement, but they fight for the party vote, and so where a constituency MP like myself, I'm out there fighting for both, so I want to represent my seat, but I also want the party vote. And so they run a different campaign, but no there's not that sort of formal agreement where there's a nod given to a particular candidate by a party.

Rawdon: Alright, thanks for that. Let's move on to the inquiry into the Lieutenant O'Donnell death. Your thoughts on what it has brought up?

Annette: Well I think there's something like 69 recommendations, and I think what we have to take from this are the learnings from it, and the implementations of those recommendations, and you know it's a terrible tragedy and no one wants to see the loss of life. But when there is a Commission of Inquiry, and it was the Army's own one, then they need to take the recommendations and ensure they implement them. I gather they've already made changes.

Rawdon: Yes they've already said they're gonna start implementing them or they already have. The family has accepted that these recommendations wouldn't have been able to save Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell

Annette: Yes I heard the father speaking last night and he made that clear and I think no one's trying to point the finger of blame, but the learnings from here have come out of the Commission on Inquiry, and you would hope that from that, that there would be safeguards put in place in the future if it was possible.

Rawdon: Should our government be learning from their position as far as our commitment in Afghanistan goes as a result of this?

Annette: Well we're saying to the government and have been for some time that we should take our troops out of Afghanistan. We believe it's a corrupt government, we don't believe we should be there, and that's been our message to the government. I think the Prime Minister is saying that he's going to withdraw the SAS in March next year, and I think people will be very relieved when that happens. We don't believe they ought to be there now.

Rawdon: Very quickly I just want to talk about the Israeli spy situation. You're critical or the Labour Party rather is critical that the Leader Phil Goff wasn't briefed on the SIS investigation into the alleged spies in Christchurch post earthquake.

Annette: I think a couple of issues here Rawdon. I think Mr Key fell down on not being upfront and straightforward with the public from the beginning, and I think the editorial in the Herald probably summed it up very well. If he'd been open and upfront I think people wouldn't be so suspicious about the movements of the Israeli people. As far as Phil Goff being briefed by Mr Tucker, he did not receive any documents from Mr Tucker at all. So where Mr Key got that from I don't know. Mr Goff met with Mr Tucker yesterday and he made it very clear that no documents and papers had been given to him to look at on this issue. So I think that maybe the briefing that was given to the Prime Minister was faulty.

Rawdon: Alright, thank you very much Annette King, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.