Herald on Adjournment
The Herald has reported on the adjournment of yesterday’s hearing.
Parliament’s Speaker Margaret Wilson has delayed proceedings in a private legal challenge against Labour’s pledge card until Auditor-General Kevin Brady has delivered his report on the matter to Parliament.
A hearing date for the private challenge, being taken by Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton, was to have been set yesterday. But Margaret Wilson’s lawyer, Jack Hodder, has sought a four-week delay so that she can absorb Mr Brady’s conclusions before filing her defence in the private action.
There has been some concern expressed that Margaret Wilson may be in a difficult spot with her job as speaker requiring her to pass judgement on Labour’s pledge card spending. Helen Clark isn’t concerned:
Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday dismissed any suggestion that Margaret Wilson, a former party president who also played a central role in Labour’s election campaign, might be conflicted if she has to decide what to do with the report.
“I think it is important to uphold the integrity of the position of the Speaker. The Speaker will be taking her own advice on how to proceed when she receives the final report and as far as I’m concerned, she is a person of integrity who will act with integrity and fully recognising the responsibilities she has as Speaker.”
The report concludes by saying that I will drop the case if Labour admits breaking the law. To clarify, this was in response to a question about whether I would drop the case if Labour paid back the money. The short answer was, “No,” but my expansion on that might have caused this misunderstanding.
My position is that paying back the money isn’t enough. This case is about the fact that the government is not above the law and I want Labour to accept that. If Labour admits the misappropriation I won’t drop the case but it will certainly come to a conclusion a lot more quickly.
October 4th, 2006 at 9:06 am
Margaret Wilson taking her own advice, so ridiculous it’s not funny.
Helen needs to take an honesty pill and start telling the truth, but she couldn’t do that might slip up and tell the world she’s a lesbian, not that it matters that she is, it’s just the lie that errks me.
October 5th, 2006 at 9:53 pm
If Wilson effectively does nothing which is quite possible I hope National will call a vote of no confidence in the speaker if only to identify the integrity or lack of in Labour supporting parties. Is there any precedent for a sucessful vote of no confidence in the speaker, if so what follows??
October 6th, 2006 at 12:28 am
Its not an adjournment. Its a stay of execution. But a temporary one at that.