Harawira complains to Speaker about Key's Dotcom connection

Internet millionaire Kim Dotcom making his submissions to the Intelligence and Security select committee hearing into the GCSB at Parliament in 2013. Photo / Mark Mitchell

internet-Mana co-leader Hone Harawira has complained to Parliament's Speaker that Prime Minister John Key may have misled the House over when he was aware of Kim Dotcom's existence.

Mr Harawira asked for the matter to be referred to Parliament's privileges committee.

However, the Speaker cannot deal with the complaint as Parliament has been dissolved ahead of the election.

An email from former Speaker David Carter's office to Mr Harawira said all House business had lapsed and no new business could be initiated until a new Parliament was formed.

"The Speaker has no role in this respect. He remains Speaker only as the responsible Minister under the Public Finance Act and the Parliamentary Service Act."

Yesterday, Dotcom released an email, dated October 27, 2010, purportedly from Warner Bros chairman and chief executive Kevin Tsujihara to a senior executive at the Hollywood lobby group the Motion Picture Association of America.

The email said Mr Key was aware of Dotcom and he was working to ensure he gained residency to make it easier for his deportation by US authorities.

The email was immediately dismissed as a fake by Mr Key and Warner Bros.

Mr Key had previously said he had no knowledge of Dotcom before January 19, 2012, the day before the tycoon was arrested by NZ Police acting on behalf of the FBI.

Mr Harawira told Radio New Zealand today he believed the Prime Minister may have misled the house for what he said he knew and didn't know about the raid on the Dotcom mansion and the role of the GCSB and SIS.

He asked for the matter to be referred to the privileges committee.

Internet Party leader Laila Harre told TV3's Firstline programme this morning that the email provided "very clear evidence" that Mr Key knew of Dotcom's existence.

"And more than that, that he was involved very intimately in the process of this case."

Now that Dotcom had provided that evidence the proper process with the privilege's committee needed to be followed, she said.

"I have no doubt that if there is a proper process that allows all the evidence to emerge around this set of facts and people tell the truth - if the prime minister tells the truth - in that inquiry, that he will be shown to have known about Kim Dotcom's existence."

Following last night's Moment of Truth, Dotcom did not want to speak with reporters about the email.

Ms Harre said the reason was because he had been give "very clear legal advice" not to.

"The strong advice to him was to make sure that this evidence was put before a proper judicial process.

"That's what Parliament's privileges committee is."

Dotcom followed the advice rather than his "gut instinct" to tell the public everything, she said.

Crown Law spokeswoman Jan Fulstow declined to confirm whether the office would be seeking to confirm the veracity of the email.

Dotcom's lawyer Ira Rothken said he handled Dotcom's legal defence and the email was a political matter.