John Armstrong: PM treads warily over 'Maori-bugging'

COMMENT

Put up or shut up. The look was typically acid and the language equally bitter as the Prime Minister yesterday threw out a challenge to those making allegations against the Security Intelligence Service.

She said they should stop "throwing mud" and front up with hard evidence at a quasi-judicial inquiry to be conducted by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security, Justice Paul Neazor.

However, Helen Clark's belligerence disguised the fact that she is now treading more cautiously than she did when she initially dismissed claims that the SIS has illegally bugged Maori organisations.

So emphatic were her denials last Sunday that any evidence subsequently produced which proves the contrary would have been acutely embarrassing.

She went way beyond her standard refusal to make any comment on intelligence matters, instead relaying the advice of SIS director Richard Woods that the allegations were a "work of fiction".

While she is still taking the SIS on its word, she has taken the precaution of ensuring there is some distance between herself and the agency for which she holds ministerial responsibility should Mr Neazor's findings be adverse in any way.

As she put it yesterday, she is now "standing back from this".

However, in the end, the inquiry was forced on the Prime Minister by factors outside her control.

Once Mr Neazor had decided he should investigate Tariana Turia's complaint to him that her former ministerial home had been bugged, but not necessarily by the SIS, Helen Clark had little choice but to give him permission to conduct a full inquiry into that allegation.

That simply put more pressure on the Prime Minister to extend the inquiry to the separate allegations the SIS infiltrated iwi organisations to gather political intelligence, in contravention of the law.

If one, why not the other?

Widening the inquiry was necessary to silence inevitable accusations of "cover-up" and "conspiracy" which would have only served as ammunition for Mrs Turia's Maori Party in its life-and-death battle with Labour.

And it leaves the media organisations making the allegations about SIS meddling - the Sunday Star-Times and Scoop website - with the dilemma of whether they now reveal their sources to give concrete backing to their claims.

A full inquiry is also now essential to rebuild public confidence in the supposed watchdog role of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security following the humiliating exit of Laurie Greig, Mr Neazor's predecessor, for his infamous "outski" reference to Ahmed Zaoui.

The Prime Minister's willingness to give seeming carte blanche to Mr Neazor should also dissipate any remaining agitation for an inquiry to be conducted by someone completely independent of the intelligence agency apparatus and accompanying oversight roles, such as Mr Neazor's.

Excepting Mrs Turia and the Greens, those calls have been somewhat muted.

Both National and NZ First have offered obligatory backing for an independent inquiry. But they have not pressed the issue, instead suspending judgment.

Don Brash is well aware of the risk of looking silly if the whole murky affair does turn out to be fiction. Winston Peters, never one to shun a good conspiracy, has been sceptical of the allegations from the beginning.

The danger of looking stupid is less of a worry to the Greens and the Maori Party. They play to constituencies innately suspicious of the SIS.

In contrast, National and NZ First do not want to be seen to be undermining the agencies responsible for preserving national security. The Prime Minister should be grateful for that at least.