Tamihere doubts bug claim

John Tamihere has asked the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security to look into a claim the SIS bugged him even though the Labour MP doesn't believe the allegation.

The claim, put to the former Cabinet minister this week by the Sunday Star-Times, is particularly serious because Prime Minister Helen Clark is the SIS Minister and any bugging by the agency requires her signature on a warrant first.

If the claim were true, it would mean she had asked the agency to spy on her own MP, who was promoted to the Cabinet after the election.

Alternatively, it would mean the SIS had acted illegally by tapping Mr Tamihere's phones without a warrant.

Either way, the SIS is not supposed to carry out surveillance for political purposes and warrants can by law be obtained only where threats to national or domestic security are at stake.

The Sunday Star-Times reported last weekend that the SIS was targeting Maori organisations and individuals, including members ofthe Maori Party.

Helen Clark has described the allegations as a "work of fiction" and called for any evidence to the contrary to be laid on the table.

The Inspector-General, Justice Paul Neazor, decided to investigate after receiving a complaint from the Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia.

Mr Tamihere said he was approached by the Sunday Star-Times this week.

A reporter "had put it to me that they have evidence from an SIS operative that I was bugged from June 2002 onwards. I said, `Well bring it [the evidence] along', but they didn't have anything."

He accused the newspaper of going on a fishing expedition and said he was confident the claims were not true.

"You don't have to `out' a source, but you can be more specific with the allegations - `You were bugged here, you were bugged for this reason' - but there was no substance at all."

Mr Tamihere would not say whether he had raised the matter with Helen Clark.

But he said he would not be going on the front foot unless he was sure he had not been spied on by the SIS.

Asked why he had referred the matter to Justice Neazor if he was so confident the claims were false, he said he wanted the matter cleared up.

"Conspiracy theories are flying all over the place. I have said, `I understand you are conducting an inquiry, please put me on the list'."

The MP, who was recently forced to resign his portfolios because he took a payout after saying he wouldn't, said: "I want him to test journalistic standards for a change."

He went on to defend the SIS's right to spy on some Maori activists, including those in the Maori Party.

"I still believe a number of people in the Maori Party should be under surveillance because it doesn't matter whether they are Muslim, Maori or the National Front, if they have made clear declarations of civil disorder and acts which are illegal, it would ill behove any security service not to have a look at them.

"There is a requirement for it to happen. It's a matter of whether the right belts and braces are around it and I'm sure the inquiry will show that."

Sunday Star-Times editor Cate Brett did not return a call about Mr Tamihere's claims yesterday.

A spokesman for Helen Clark said she had laughed when told of the allegation.

"She said it was absolutely ludicrous. There was not the slightest legal basis on which his phone could be bugged."