AUCKLAND (NZ Newswire / Fairfax NZ / Pacific Media Watch): New Zealand Prime Minister John Key's office has been accused in Parliament of pressuring the Parliamentary Service to release press gallery reporter Andrea Vance's phone records, NZ Newswire reports.
Parliament Speaker David Carter confirmed today that three months of phone records detailing calls between Fairfax journalist Andrea Vance and people within the parliamentary precinct were handed over to a ministerial inquiry.
The revelation is in stark contrast to assurances given last week that Vance's phone records were not supplied.
The inquiry was investigating the unauthorised leak of a report on the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
In a statement, Carter said Vance's records were supplied "inadvertently" to the inquiry, which immediately made it clear it had neither sought them nor wanted them.
The release of the information to the inquiry was unacceptable, Carter said. But Carter told Parliament he did not think anyone asked for the phone records.
"It appears to me they were released perhaps by someone who enthusiastically overrode what he should have done," the Speaker said.
Critical reactions
Labour and the Greens said it must have been John Key's chief of staff, Wayne Eagleson, who told the service to give details of Fairfax reporter Andrea Vance's phone calls to investigators trying to find out who leaked a secret report.
"This is one of the most serious and disgraceful actions that could take place in this Parliament," Labour's deputy leader Grant Robertson said, according to Newswire.
"What appears to be the case is that the Prime Minister, through his chief of staff, has put pressure on the Parliamentary Service to release material about the activities of parliamentarians and the media," he said.
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said New Zealand's free press has been "menaced" by the Prime Minister.
"We have a situation where the Prime Minister's chief of staff was leaning on the Parliamentary Service to get them to release information about the phone records of a New Zealand journalist... it is an extraordinary turn of events."
Vance reported details of a report on the Government Communications Security Bureau ahead of its release, and John Key ordered the inquiry to find out who gave it to her.
Carter disputed the notion of Wayne Eagleson being involved.
"There are suggestions the phone records were released under pressure from the Prime Minister's chief of staff - I can find absolutely no evidence of that whatsoever."
Speaker apology
Carter met Vance this morning ahead of releasing a statement about her phone records.
"It gives me no pleasure at all to have had a meeting earlier today with a journalist and apologise on behalf of the Parliamentary Service for the fact that her phone records were released," he said.
The Speaker previously asked Parliament's privileges committee to review the rules around disclosure of information and he said it will investigate the release of Vance's phone records.
Prime Minister John Key said the service made a mistake and he did not know anything about the phone records until Carter told him. Key said he had "enormous respect" for the media and believed in the freedom of information.
Labour leader David Shearer said there is the "smell of a cover-up" about a journalist's phone records being handed over to a ministerial inquiry, Fairfax NZ reported.
Prime Minister John Key had instigated the inquiry: "So we should be asking Mr Key - did his office ask for them?"
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