Will Labour block former NZ First officials from telling the truth?

Stuff reports:

A former NZ First president and treasurer have written to a Parliamentary select committee saying they wish to talk about the party’s foundation.

Former president Lester Gray and former treasurer Colin Forster wrote to the justice select committee in late November requesting the opportunity to submit in a closed session to the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the 2017 election.

In the letter, released by committee member and National MP Nick Smith, the pair said they wanted to “shed some light on the inappropriate internal workings of the party that seemingly aren’t monitored or controlled by electoral law.”

The pair say they want to submit over “serious revelations over the failure to disclose major donations, the significant expenditure on unauthorised campaign activities and in the appropriate running of a separate foundation without the proper oversite [sic] of elected party officials.”

This is ground breaking stuff. The two most senior former officials of a political party allege that the party doesn’t have control of its own finances.

The Justice Select Committee has eight members on it – four from Labour and four from National. If the NZ First former officials are not allowed to testify it will be because Labour has voted to stop them. That will signify that Labour is desperate to protect NZ First at all costs.