Winston declares Spencer Trust donation

The Parliament website now records the amended return by Winston Peters for the year to 31 January 2007.

A gift from the Spencer Trust towards his electoral petition costs has been declared.

This would never have come to light if it were not for the SFO. Peters and Henry supplied false evidence to the Privileges Committee about this issue.

Now Peters has officially declared the gift, known to be $40,000, the ball is in the PM’s Court. The Cabinet Manual says:

Ministers who accept gifts worth more than the prescribed value must not only disclose them to the Registrar of Pecuniary Interests of Members of Parliament, but also must relinquish them, unless they obtain the express permission of the Prime Minister to retain them.

Helen Clark must give her “express permission” or Peters is required to relinquish the gift.

Will Clark give her permission for a Minister to keep what was effectively a personal donation of $40,000? That is 80 times greater than the disclosure limit and probably the biggest gift by a magnitude ever received by a Minister.

And is the Prime Minister at all concerned that the ultimate source of the money was almost certainly the Velas? Does she think Cabinet should have been informed of these personal donations to the Minister of Racing, when they accepted his recommendation to spend taxpayer money on bigger prizes for horse races?