No Right Turn on Clark re Peters
No Right Turns blogs on Helen Clark’s see no evil policy:
Despite clear Cabinet guidelines about the declaration of interests and a separate (but sadly confidential) process for Ministers to declare interests, Clark insists that it is nothing to do with her, but instead a question for the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests. This is simply false; the question of whether Peters has failed to properly notify Parliament of his interests and the question of whether he has failed to properly declare and manage his interests as a cabinet minister are completely separate.
Nothing is more squarely a duty of the Prime Minister but to judge how her Minister’s handle interests.
Clark says Peters can keep the money. Under s2.79 of the Cabinet Manual, gifts of more than $500 must be relinquished unless the Prime Minister permits them to be retained. According to Clark, the gift paid for a legal case which served a substantial public interest, and so she has no problem with it being retained. This isn’t unreasonable, given the frequency with which MPs are involved in legal action, and it is nice to have it made clear.
Unfortunately, Clark entirely evaded the question of whether giving a minister $100,000 when you wanted a job from them created a conflict of interest. The answer is obvious, and it is shameful that she refuses to state it and stand up for proper standards in the executive.
This is very significant that Clark has approved Peters keeping the secret $100,000 donation. She knows that Owen Glenn was lobbying Peters to be given a diplomatic appointment and that Peters had discussed the issue with her.
I am surprised people have not wondered why Owen Glenn would decide to donate $100,000 to a secret legal fund for Winston Peters. What was his motivation?
Well let us look at why he donated to Labour. He said he liked their policy of supporting a free trade agreement with China. But NZ First is totally opposed to that agreement, so he did not donate because he likes their policies I presume.
Maybe he just liked Winston, and wanted to help him. Strange though that he never mentioned it in all his meetings with him.
It would be interesting to have someone ask Winston the dates of all his meetings or conversations with Owen Glenn, and when he first raised the issue of Consul.
It would also be interesting to know when Brian Henry received the money and first talked to Glenn about a donation.
I am not saying there is a linkage, but the timings would be useful for people to be able to make a judgement call.