I misheard, misspoke, but did not lie – Key

The Prime Minister says he has “absolutely not” lied about his contact with Cameron Slater, although he has admitted to exchanging a “handful” of texts with the attack blogger in recent months.

At a media stand-up in Christchurch today, John Key was pressed about whether he had told the truth this week when asked about his contact with Mr Slater.

The barrage of questions were prompted by a clarification Mr Key made in Parliament last night after having earlier denied communicating with Mr Slater on Monday about the report on the Security Intelligence Service, which was released by the inspector-general of intelligence on Tuesday.

In his clarification to Parliament, Mr Key said he actually did have contact with Mr Slater about that report.

The Prime Minster also denied having been in touch with Mr Slater when asked by reporters on Tuesday.

"Well I haven't spoken to him on the phone for months and months and months on end,” Mr Key said. “He sent me a text one time, but I can't remember when that was.”

The most recent text exchange between Mr Key and Mr Slater had occurred less than 24 hours before he gave that response.

Mr Key is insisting both his answers had been "absolutely correct", insomuch as he had misinterpreted both of the questions because he believed he was being asked about a different report.

The government chose to release three significant reports on Tuesday:

• on the Security Intelligence Service’s treatment of an OIA request by Mr Slater;
• on whether Judith Collins had behaved improperly as a minister in seeking to undermine then-head of the Serious Fraud Office Adam Feeley, an inquiry launched after Mr Key released a leaked email in which Mr Slater claimed Ms Collins was “gunning” for the SFO boss;
• and on the escape of convicted murderer-child molester Phillip Smith from NZ while on leave from prison.

In relation to the question was asked in Parliament, Mr Key says that "When that particular question was asked in the House there was quite a lot of noise” and that he "genuinely only heard the first bit", which referred to the Collins report.

The Prime Minister also believed RadioLive political editor Jessica Williams was asking him about the report on Ms Collins’ conduct when he denied having contact with Mr Slater about it.

Mr Key also admitted to have had contact with Slater since the publication of Nicky Hager's Dirty Politics.

"I have never pro-actively rung or texted Cameron Slater," he said.

"What I can say on a small handful of occasions he has sent me unsolicited texts. I've either not responded to those or I've courteously responded, so in principle I haven't engaged in a dialogue with him."