John Key says any claims of mass surveillance on New Zealanders are unsubstantiated and is calling on Edward Snowden and Glenn Greenwald to come up with proof.
Snowden says he had access to the private communications of New Zealanders while he was working as an NSA analyst in Hawaii.
He says the controversial GCSB legislation passed last year was needed in order to make the mass surveillance possible.
Otago University politics lecturer Bryce Edwards says although it appears the Prime Minister is lying about the GCSB's activities, it's hard to tell if there will be an impact at the polls.
"Having looked through all the material it seems we are being spied upon, and that we have this situation where the XKeyscore programme is being used by the GCSB and the Prime Minister won't talk about that, which is a major failing."
Dirty Politics "softened-up" support for Mr Key – so could the spying claims be a tipping point for the Government?
Dr Edwards says it would only take 5 percent of voters to change their minds to change the Government.
Watch the video for the full interview.
source: newshub archive
