American journalist Glenn Greenwald says Prime Minister John Key systematically misled New Zealanders by working on a mass surveillance plan while giving assurances the government would not spy on them.
The award-winning journalist is in Auckland as part of a Kim Dotcom-funded event on Monday night set to reveal, using US National Security Agency documents obtained by Edward Snowden, that the country's foreign intelligence agency GCSB engaged in widespread domestic spying.
Mr Key has strongly denied the claims, saying the information is linked to a widespread cyber protection program that was briefly considered by the government but never got off the ground.
He said Mr Greenwald had incomplete information and wrongly "thought he had a gotcha thing on me," he told Radio New Zealand on Monday.
But the journalist followed straight after Mr Key, telling the radio station the prime minister's claim that he was only "considering" a surveillance program was "absolutely false".
"They did far more than merely consider it," he said.
"They took active steps to implement it."
Mr Greenwald said they were working with the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.
He said the documents he would release during Dotcom's Moment of Truth on Monday night would prove the cyber program "absolutely it got off the ground" and was simply awaiting a law change to allow mass data collection to begin.
"They were simply waiting for enactment of the new law that they thought would give them whole new powers to be able to do this at the very same time the prime minister was assuring the public that the new law would give them no powers."
Mr Greenwald said: "It's really a case of systematic misleading of the public that really hasn't stopped."
Mr Key told RadioLive on Monday that the documents only show a "business case proposal being worked up". The plan focused on cyber protection, not surveillance, as Mr Greenwald claims.
"He's wrong. There's no mass surveillance of New Zealanders. There never has been. We don't have the technical capability to do it."
Mr Key also said there was a possibility Mr Greenwald would claim New Zealand had been spying on trade partners - including China.
The prime minister refused to comment on whether New Zealand had done so when he was pressed during a Newstalk ZB interview on Monday, saying there was always a good reason for spying.
"Let's just wait and see what he [Greenwald] comes up with," he said.
And Mr Key denied he'd have major diplomatic problems if it was shown New Zealand had spied on China.
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