Dunne affair: Key rejects police inquiry call, attacks Peters

Prime Minister John Key has rejected NZ Fiirst, Labour and Green calls for a police inquiry, and Peter Dunne to be pushed out of Parliament.

On Friday, Mr Dunne resigned from cabinet after Mr Key gave him the choice of cooperating with an inquiry into a GCSB report leak, or handing in his ministerial warrant.

"He’s not the first MP to have leaked information," the Prime Minister said this morning on Breakfast.

"So this argument he has to be hounded out of Parliament isn’t actually consistent. Look at Lianne Dalziel. She leaked a document to a journalist. She mislead people about that. She lost her ministerial warrant as Peter Dunne has. She was brought back as a minister and continues to be in Parliament." (Ms Dalziel leaked documents about a Sri Lankan teenager's asylum case to TV3 in 2004).

"Secondly, it wasn’t a secret document. It was a sensitive document, and what that means is we were going to release it, in totality. He basically broke an embargo if he was the person who released it."

The PM added, "If it had been a member of staff, for instance, it would have been a disciplinary action, so it’s not a crime."

Call the cops
Green Party leader Russel Norman has raised the question of whether Mr Dunne leaded the still-secret appendix to the report, which would be a possible breach of the Crimes Act. NZ First Leader Winston Peters has hinted Mr Dunne is involved in other leaks.

Asked if there was any evidence of Mr Peters' allegations, Mr Key said, “Well, there may or may not be. I can’t tell you what in those emails. I haven’t seen them. Mr Peters is trying to link Mr Dunne with a number of more minor leaks which took place with the same journalist. That may or not be correct, I can’t really make much comment about that – except to say: Winston Peters, he loves all this stuff, he revels in all the innuendo. Generally he doesn’t have a lot of information."

On Mr Peter's call for a police investigation, Mr Key brought up controversy over whether the NZ First leader solicited a $100,000 donation from Rich Lister Owen Glenn.

"I saw him out there saying I should go off to the police. Well when he was in all sorts of trouble back in 2008, I didn’t hear him screaming for the then Prime Minister to go off to the police," Mr Key said.

Should Dunne leave Parliament?
Slipping into self-interview mode, the Prime Minister said, "If, hypothetically speaking, he leaked this report, would that mean he would have to leave Parliament?" In my view, we’re getting to a point where we’re trying to hound everybody out of Parliament.  Fair enough, but that means we’ve got to all play by those rules."

People needed to put events in perspective, the PM said.

"Even if he was to have done that [leaked the report], I’d be extremely disappointed, because I trusted  him to the marrow.

"But on the other side of the coin, he’s worked for nearly 30 years for his constituents in Ohariu, he’s been a very good minister, he’s been my most dependable coalition partner, he’s done a lot for the NZ public.

"So if he’s made a terrible mistake, let’s put a little context around that mistake."

Want to believe him
Asked if he believed Mr Dunne's denial that he leaked the report, Mr Key said, I can’t determine that. I want to believe him. There’s been some behaviour in terms of information shared that would not be appropriate with a minister anyway – that’s what he’s admitted to. And he’s got the 86 emails in his possession. He won’t comply with David Henry who was carrying out the review. So I haven’t seen the emails. David Henry hasn’t seen the emails so we can’t form a judgment on that. Of the three people in the report who had communication with the journalist, the other two have fully complied and are now essentially witnesses, not suspects."