Peters claims reports are malicious lies

The Dom Post reports:

Mr Peters initially told The Dominion Post yesterday it was wasting its time pursuing what he labelled “malicious lies”. He then called back to warn against suggesting in today’s article that he had refused to answer questions.

Referring to reports in The Dominion Post about Tauranga man Tommy Gear, who is on the parliamentary payroll as a NZ First staffer, Mr Peters said he would not offer an explanation till the newspaper explained its motivation in running those stories.

“You’re not going to be pulling these narrow focused conspiracies against us. It’s not going to be happening … Why is your paper engaged in lying?”

Now if WInston is correct and this is all malicious lies, I am trying to think of the possible scenarios which back this up. They are:

1. The e-mails are fakes or forgeries. If this is the case then there is a huge defamation case heading towards the NZ Herald. However Steve Fisher of Baldwin Boyle has confirmed the e-mails were in line with his advice to Owen Glenn.
2. Owen Glenn is lying to Steve Fisher when he says he donated to NZ First. Now it is very hard to imagine the rationale you would have to lie to your own PR advisor in a private e-mail which was never intended to see the light of day.
3. Owen Glenn is mad. He is a Walter Mitty type who lives in a fantasy world and created this whole scandal of donating to NZ First, when he never did just so he could hire PR advisors to advise him how to deny something he never did.
4. Owen Glenn is confused. He thought he donated to NZ First, but actually donated to another political party by mistake.

Now I have to say I’m not sure which of these scenarios is most likely, but if this is all malciious lies, I look forward to finding out.

The Herald reports that Helen Clark is not likely to want to comment on the issue:

Helen Clark has refused to comment on the donation controversy, and today is likely to insist it is an internal matter for New Zealand First.

It would be an interesting standard for Helen Clark. After all she leads the party that campaigned on transparency in electoral financing.

The reality is this is not just a NZ First internal issue. Helen Clark appointed Winston Peters Foreign Minister. As Foreign Minister he was lobbied by Owen Glenn to appoint Glenn Consul to Monaco. If Glenn is a secret donor to the Foregin Minister’s party, that is an issue of great relevance to the Government. Just as the fact Mike WIlliams lobbed Helen Clark on behalf of Owen Glenn.

We still do not know if Owen Glenn did donate to NZ First. The only way it can be resolved is an independent investigation. But if he did donate, why did he donate? Would he have donated (if he did) if WInston was not Foreign Minister? That is why it is an issue for the Prime Minister.