Fairfax papers on Peters
Also some stories in the Fairfax group. First Martin Kay:
Prime Minister Helen Clark is seeking advice on whether Winston Peters should hand over the $100,000 donated by shipping billionaire Owen Glenn under rules requiring ministers to disclose gifts.
Miss Clark told Parliament she wanted to know if the donation, to help pay Mr Peters’ legal bills from his failed court bid to overturn the 2005 Tauranga result, counted as a gift under the Cabinet Manual.
Under those rules, ministers must relinquish gifts worth more than $500 unless they have the prime minister’s express permission to retain them.
This is Clark’s nightmare – that she has to decide whether or not it is okay for Peters to benefit from a $100,000 gift from a person who was lobbying him to be given a diplomatic appointment.
Clark initially said it definitely was not a gift under the Cabinet rules, so she is backing down from that position.
It will be interesting who she gets advice from. If it is from the Cabinet Office it will be pretty straight advice. If it is from Crown Law I predict it will say it is not a gift! Crown Law can be relied upon to please their client.
It is the first time Miss Clark has acknowledged the donation has a ministerial dimension after days of insisting it is an issue for Mr Peters and NZ First, not for her as prime minister.
Yep it is significant.
Peters said he had broken no laws and he was also “confident” he had not misled Parliament.
He said that “big money” had been paid to dig up dirt on him, including by TVNZ, which had hired two detectives to investigate him.
Really. Someone should put that allegation to TVNZ.
NZ First MPs on their way into Parliament yesterday refused to talk to reporters, although deputy leader Peter Brown called out that he had “no concerns” about Peters.
I suspect Peter Brown could walk into a room where Winston is brutally stabbing someone to death, and cheerfully walk out of it and declare he has no concerns about Peters. There is loyalty, there is blind loyalty and then that special brand of it in NZ First.