'Put up or shut up' - Jones tells Flavell

Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Labour's Shane Jones says Maori Party co-leader Te Ururoa Flavell should "put up or shut up" over documents he says reveal police surveillance associated with Operation Eight and the 2007 Ruatoki raids was far more widespread than previously known.

Mr Flavell says he has a police log, which shows surveillance associated with Operation 8 ran from 2005 to 2009, rather than the 18 month period leading up to Ruatoki raid as previously thought. He also says the documents reveal high profile Maori and Pakeha, and people outside the Ruatoki and Whakatane areas were watched.

"I can confirm there are names on there that were not a part of Operation Eight, and there were some significant figures as well as organisations that were named in the document."

During a closed hearing of Parliament's Maori affairs committee yesterday Mr Flavell questioned Police Commissioner Peter Marshall on the documents. The documents are now being examined by Police to see if they are genuine.

Mr Flavell has not so far made the documents public, telling Maori Television's Te Kaea they "could cause all sorts of damage".

But Mr Jones called on Mr Flavell to table the documents in Parliament.

"I construed his allegations to be so grievous that unless he's a scaremonger, he should just put up or shut up."

"You don't make such grievous allegation without having done a fair bit of due diligence."

If Mr Flavell had checked the documents' veracity, "he should lay them in the House".

If the documents proved genuine, "than that's an extraordinarily dangerous development", particularly at a time when Mr Marshall was working to repair the Police relationship with Tuhoe.