1. Cabinet Appointments and Honours Committee—Chair
[Uncorrected transcript—subject to correction and further editing.]
1. JOHN KEY (Leader of the Opposition) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by her answers to oral question No. 2 on 19 February 2008; if not, why not?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) : Yes.
John Key: When did the Prime Minister become aware that the President of the Labour Party, Mr Mike Williams, had asserted that no donations had been received from Owen Glenn since 2005?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: I would think since the matter has been in the public arena, within the last few days.
John Key: Why did not the Prime Minister seek to correct the false impression given by Mike Williams, given that at the point she learnt of the statement she knew it to be untrue?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: When I say in the last few days, it was probably in the course of preparation for question time yesterday that my attention was drawn to that statement, which I think was made on or around 31 December. The member himself may have been in Hawaii at the time, which is probably why he refused to comment on the matter when asked by the New Zealand Herald.
John Key: How does the Prime Minister reconcile the fact that she chose not to correct the statement by Mr Williams, which she knew to be incorrect, with her promise that she would deliver a Government that people could trust and that would be open and accountable?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: Of course, no such choice was made. I have made it clear since this matter has come to my attention that Mr Williams made a mistake. This donation of forgone interest will be in the Labour Party’s audited accounts. I note that the National Party’s audited accounts have no track of any donation ever made by Mr Key. Are we to believe that he is just mean, or has he hidden his donations in the Waitemata Trust?
John Key: Further to her response to my question yesterday, has she at any time had any discussions with the President of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mike Williams, regarding the possible appointment of Owen Glenn as New Zealand’s honorary consul to Monaco?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: As I said to the House yesterday, I became aware that Mr Glenn had expressed such an interest. Since becoming aware, I have obviously had that as a matter of discussion with Mr Winston Peters. Mr Williams has also talked to me about it. I repeat that Mr Glenn’s interest was expressed in just the same way that Mr Richard Worth advanced the cause of a friend of his; when Mr Worth wrote to the previous Minister of Foreign Affairs about the matter, he told Mr Phil Goff: “There is an aspect of substantial self-interest behind my request that the New Zealand Government appoint a consul in Monaco.”
John Key: Can the Prime Minister then confirm, subsequent to her answer just a few moments ago, at what point did Mr Williams actually inform her about the conversations that he had had with Mr Glenn; was it before or after they had received the various donations he gave to the Labour Party?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: Those donations go back to somewhere around 2003, 2004, 2005, so quite a long time.
John Key: Has the Prime Minister worked out that not only is she wrong, but she is actually continuing to propagate the myth that Mr Williams has been trying to propagate, because, in fact, Mr Glenn gave a donation some time after that, and that may well have been around the time that he was talking about becoming the honorary consul?
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK: The member is starting to believe his own propaganda. There seems to be a view that being an honorary consul is a plum post. Well, it might be for Mr Worth, who sees it as being in his self-interest to recommend people for the position in Monaco, but for most people they offer to do it because they think they can do something for a country.
7. Electoral Finance Act—Enforcement
[Uncorrected transcript—subject to correction and further editing.]
7. Hon BILL ENGLISH (Deputy Leader—National) to the Minister of Justice: Who is responsible for enforcing breaches of the Electoral Finance Act 2007 related to the supply of credit to political parties at better than market rates provision in section 21(2)?
Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Justice) : I presume the member does not really mean what he says in the question—that is, that someone should be enforcing breaches of the Electoral Finance Act. I think he meant to ask who is responsible for the enforcement of provisions of the Act, but I am not sure.
Hon Bill English: Can the member recall telling this House during the debate last year that in fact the police are responsible ultimately for enforcing the Electoral Finance Act; in the light of those statements is she concerned about a statement on Monday by the Labour Party President, Mike Williams, that interest-free loans do not constitute donations under any electoral law, and does she believe that he should be investigated by the police in case he is breaching the Electoral Finance Act?
Hon ANNETTE KING: Under the Electoral Finance Act, the Electoral Commission and the Chief Electoral Office have administrative responsibility for aspects of the Act, and the police have the prosecution function.
Hon Bill English: So what action does the Minister expect would be taken by the Electoral Commission or the police when the president of a major party says: “We don’t declare these sort of donations, but we get lots of them.”, and will she be ensuring that the credibility of the Act is reinforced by some show of enforcement of its provisions?
Hon ANNETTE KING: A show of enforcement will be made either by the Chief Electoral Officer or the Electoral Commission, or the police if that is necessary—it is not for me to say that. But what I will say to the member is that up until the end of last year the provisions relating to donations were part of the 1993 Act. That member yesterday asked in this House whether I was aware that the Electoral Finance Act made it quite clear that interest-free loans would be counted as a donation. There is no mention in the 1993 Act of such a thing.
Hon Bill English: If that is the case, can the Minister tell us why the Prime Minister has gone to so much trouble to say that the Labour Party will now comply with that piece of legislation over its interest-free loans?
Hon ANNETTE KING: The law is in effect, and in terms of any donations that were made in relation to the 2007 Act, the Labour Party would certainly be following it.
Hon Bill English: Can the Minister tell us whether the 1993 Act or the Electoral Finance Act includes provisions designed to stop parties from splitting up donations in order to avoid declarations; if so, can she tell us what she thinks of an apparent statement made by the president of the Labour Party that “We get lots of these interest-free loans.”, and that he may be splitting them up so that they do fall under the $10,000 threshold and do not have to be declared?
Hon ANNETTE KING: All those questions raised by the member are hypothetical. I do not have the answers for them, and I do not intend to make it up, which the member is doing.
