The Press on Peters
The Press editorial looks at the Peters-Glenn affair:
The spectacle of the leader of the New Zealand First party and Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, getting angry with journalists is nothing new, says The Press in an editorial.
It is a typical tactic, one learned from his mentor, Sir Robert Muldoon. When caught in a tight spot, get your counter-attack in first, Muldoon once said with a chortle. So when Peters reacted angrily this week to reports about alleged donations to his party from an expatriate billionaire, it was pretty much business as usual.
It is classic Muldoon tactics.
The matter also poses a problem for the Prime Minister, Helen Clark. She claims that it is not her concern and she is studiously declining all substantive comment. But as Foreign Minister, Peters has one of the gaudiest baubles in her Cabinet, and a problem for him is inescapably a problem for her. In this case, of course, it also involves a donor who has been a big contributor to the Labour Party and who may be again in the future.
And also suspected of being the person who offered the Maori Party $250,000 to support Labour.
Earlier this year, it was reported that he had also given money to New Zealand First. The report was given credence when New Zealand First’s president at the time, Dail Jones, said that a five-figure donation, which he described as closer to $100,000 than $10,000, had appeared anonymously in the party’s bank account.
It is worth recalling that Owen Glenn has previously said he has donated to another political party apart from Labour. So the e-mail is not inconsistent with what Glenn has said previously.
If an Opposition party were involved in this sort of scenario offshore billionaire, large political donations, leaked emails and so on one can imagine Peters’ response. With the shoe on the other foot, though, Peters has reacted badly. Rather than addressing the issue coolly and straightforwardly, as might be expected of a senior minister, and leaving it at that, he has allowed himself, yet again, to lose his temper with the media.
Indeed, he should do as Shipley did and front up and reveal the nature of his discussions with Owen Glenn.
Under the law on electoral finance as it stood at the time, it would have been possible for Glenn to have made his political donations in complete anonymity. If any went to New Zealand First, it is possible that Peters was unaware of them. Whatever the case, it should not be too difficult now to work out what happened and to resolve the confusions and contradictions raised by the issue once and for all. Rather than pointlessly getting angry with journalists, Peters should do that.
This is the obvious solution. Get Owen Glenn to confirm if the e-mail is real or faked. And if it is real get him to give details of how much did he donate, and to whom.
If he will not do so of his own accord, the Prime Minister should quietly persuade him of the benefits of doing so. Peters is the man she chose to be her foreign minister. Any questions concerning him inevitably reflect on her and her Government. More particularly, after the last election, both she and Peters made a great to-do about greater transparency in electoral finance and passed a greatly criticised law designed to bring it about. They should live up to all the fine principles they claimed to be espousing when they promoted that law.
The hypocrisy is immense.
Matt McCarten on TV3 this morning referred to the Mike Moore’s supporters club as an example of a roup which can be affiliated to a politician but not a formal part of the party. Now Matt may well be on the right track here. I seem to recall a trust was set up many years ago to help pay Winston’s legal bills with the Winebox. Maybe this Trust still exists. And this could explain how both men are telling the truth.
If a donation was made to a trust such as this, then Winston would be right in saying no donation has been made to NZ First. Yet Owen Glenn may not realise the difference between donating to a trust which supports Winston and the actual NZ First party, and hence has a honest belief he has donated to NZ First.
Whale Oil also looks at the offer of the NZ Herald looking at the audited accounts of NZ First, and quotes from the NZ Institute of Chartered Accountants submission of the Electoral Finance Bill, where they pointed out it won’t cover situations where something may have been excluded.
He also note that at least one other media organisation has tried to take up Winston’s offer of a copy of the audited accounts, and they have been turned down. So the offer seems rather hollow.