Has Owen Glenn provided the ’smoking gun’?

Scoopit!

The Privileges Committee met this morning to consider additional matters in respect of the complaint lodged against Winston Peters, NZ First leader and Foreign Minister.

It now transpires that they had received a letter from Owen Glenn, the expat NZ businessman, often referred to as billionaire Owen Glenn. The letter is reproduced below:-

The Glenn Letter

The NZ Herald has a story -Peters thanked me for donation – Glenn which points out that Mr Glenn’s recollections are markedly at variance with the recollections of Mr Peters and his lawyer Brian Henry.

As Audrey Young, she who was so vitriolically criticised by Peters, and Paula Oliver write:-

The statements contradict assurances Mr Peters gave to Prime Minister Helen Clark that he did not know about any donation from Mr Glenn.

They also contradict public statements Mr Peters has made that he did not ask for money.

Quite. Interesting though what Glenn has to say.

Then the Herald continues:-

A letter to the committee from Mr Peters was also released, in which he says Mr Glenn’s statement “does not coincide with my recollections.”

and:-

The glaring discrepancy presents a credibility crisis for Mr Peters, who is also Foreign Minister.

Well Adam regards the sentence above as an excellent example of the term ’studied understatement’.

Winston Peters letter is below:-

The Winston Peters Letter

As we might expect Peters is vehement in his rebuttal.

Helen Clark reportedly looked grim on her return to Wellington this morning and is expected to call Peters in for a discussion over this new development.

Young and Oliver write:-

The pressure will go on to Helen Clark during question time this afternoon as to how she will handle Mr Peters.

Remember that Clark needs Peters for the ETS to pass and Peters has yet to affirm that NZ First will give support.

It is worth noting these comments by Glenn, pointed out by Ms Young and MS Oliver:-

Mr Glenn’s letter says: “The payment was made by me to assist funding the legal costs incurred personally by Rt Hon Winston Peters MP concerning his electoral petition dispute, at his request.

“Mr Peters sought help from me for this purpose in a personal conversation, some time after I had first met him in Sydney.

“I agreed to help in the belief that this step would also assist the Labour Party, in its relationship with Mr Peters. I supported the Labour party.”

Glenn makes it clear that the money he gave to Winston Peters was to further the aims of Labour.

They point out that Mr Glenn also wrote:-

Mr Glenn said he had never made a donation to the New Zealand First Party.

“I declined an earlier request to so do.”

Peters appears to be mounting an argument along the lines of Glenn is confused. Further, Peters has taken refuge in the :-

“does not coincide with my recollections”;

defence. His memory is different.

Also the:-

he believed the “personal conversation” referred to by Mr Glenn was held with Mr Henry, rather than himself;

defence. No doubt Mr Henry will support Peters, but who then encouraged Mr Henry to talk to Glenn?

A problem for Mr Peters in Adam’s view is the fact that Peters has consistently failed to be open with the media and the public. Consequently, very view in the media, if any, have any cause to defend Peters. Plus the other recent revelations re the Spencer Trust and other issues have rather taken the gloss of Peters credibility.

Adam expects more information to emerge and will be watching question time very closely.

Adam expects to post some further thoughts later on this issue.

He closes with this comment from Rodney Hide, quoted at TV3, of which more later:-

ACT leader Rodney Hide, who lodged the privileges complaint, said Mr Peters credibility had been “shot to bits”.

“It’s very clear now that Winston Peters has misled the public of New Zealand.”
He had also misled Prime Minister Helen Clark, Parliament, the Speaker and the privileges committee and Miss Clark should immediately stand him down as her Foreign Affairs and Racing Minister, Mr Hide said.

The only reason she hadn’t sacked him so far was because the Government was reliant on NZ First to pass its emissions trading legislation. It is waiting today to hear back from NZ First on whether it will support the legislation.

He said Miss Clark’s stance was “disgusting and unethical”.

This affair was messy before, Adam considers that this can now truly be termed a major scandal requiring rigourous and vigourous urgent investigation by the SFO.

What will the Privileges Committee do now?

It would appear that Glenn’s letter is the proverbial ’smoking gun’.

Further, he does not see how Labour can do anything other than call the election. To rely on NZ First for support in passing legislation now would be an absolute travesty and a gross affront to democracy.

It will be interesting to see the behaviour of Speaker Wilson today.