The cocktail party spy who secretly taped the conversations of National Party MPs should be dismissed as a political smear artist, party leader John Key said today.
Kees Keizer told the New Zealand Herald that he had two hours of tapes from the function and the news organisation that he gave excerpts to - TV 3 - has indicated that there might be more to come.
Mr Keizer said he had not edited the recordings to change the context but rather to keep his voice secret.
He has refused to release the full recordings so this could be tested and while he had friends in Labour, Mr Keizer said he was not a member of the party.
Mr Key said the taper was talking rubbish.
"Look this is someone who is a political opponent of the National Party who is trying to smear the National Party who looks like he has links to both the Labour Party and the Greens," Mr Key said
"Frankly I think New Zealanders should disregard any tape he puts up because we don't know if it's real and we certainly know what this guy's political motivations are."
Mr Keizer said he only edited the tapes to remove his voice, but said he would not release them despite being publicly named.
Mr Key said he could recall conversations at the function held earlier this year, but if one did turn up the context would also need to be looked at and also whether the tape had been altered.
