Darnton vs Clark

Don Brash and Gerry Brownlee were on the offensive in Parliament yesterday using information released as part of this case. The Prime Minister refused to answer questions around the authorisation of the pledge card expenditure and Heather Simpson’s role in that authorisation.

She then refused to take responsibility for any of Heather Simpson’s actions, saying that she doesn’t get involved in the details of the administration of her office. PC asks, “Does it mean the spin cycle has now reached the ‘Hung Out To Dry’ stage, and H2 will be the one chosen to twist in the wind?”.

The Office of the Clerk has the full transcript of the exchange.

According to former Progressives MP Matt Robson, quoted in today’s Herald, sticking to the appropriation rules for the spending of members’ funds was easy. To their great credit, the Progressives are the only party not to have misspent any of their parliamentary funds on electioneering.

Mr Robson said the Progressives followed one clear rule: Not to put out anything with parliamentary money that said “vote for me”.

“It didn’t have to be those three words; it could be anything which was akin to that. It was just like breathing.

“I didn’t have to have a law degree to know the difference between money in your own pocket and somebody else’s.”

And if there ever were any grey areas,

Mr Robson said there was a designated person in Mr Anderton’s office, former adviser Andrew Ladley, who ensured all material was within the rules and, if there was any doubt, it was checked with the Auditor-General.

If the Progressives (who in their hearts probably don’t even believe in private property) can keep their hands out of other people’s pockets then surely the others should be able to figure it out.

The Labour Party has amended its defence.

Download: Labour’s Statement of Defence as amended 28th September (PDF, 451 kB).

The changes are all minor, generally expanding of points that were made in the original defence by adding references to other documents, e.g., the Parliamentary Service’s Statement of Intent.

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.

Just a day after Hodgson admitted something we all know, that Labour’s pledge card was electioneering (and therefore, by extension, an illegal misappropriation), the New Zealand Herald reveals that Phil Goff has broken ranks and has been privately negotiating with the Auditor-General over his electorate spending. This goes directly against orders by Heather Simpson to maintain a united front and tough it out.

Both admissions are signals that Labour’s strategy, the handling of which is already the subject of division within the party, is fraying and indicates heated discussions in caucus tomorrow are likely.

…

Mr Goff confirmed yesterday he had written to Mr Brady to contest the findings in relation to his own electorate spending and indicated he had been successful.

I look forward to a raucous caucus tomorrow and hope that Goff’s success may encourage others to break ranks as well, rather than go down with the ship. The Labour caucus has been ruled with an iron fist for so long now, it should be very entertaining to see what it looks like when the Prime Minister loses control.

The Sunday Star-Times reports today that master strategist Pete Hodgson has decided (presumably out of desperation) to employ the strategy of telling the truth.

Hodgson told the Sunday Star-Times from Australia last week that if asked what it thought of the pledge card, “the public would say that it is clearly for political purposes - and for Christ’s sake, of course it is, you know?

“If it wasn’t we would put out a pledge card the day after the election not before it.”

Asked if that meant it was electioneering, he said, “Yes.”

Good. Now that we’ve got that sorted out can we get on with the refund and the resignations please.

There has been a four-week adjornment in the case. There was supposed to be a hearing on Monday 2nd October but that has been adjourned until Monday 30th October at the request of the Speaker.

The Speaker has requested the opportunity to consider the Auditor-General’s report before confirming her defence.