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Andrew Williams
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Barbara Stewart
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Brendan Horan
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Lobby-fodder
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NZ First
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Parliamentary funding
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Richard Prosser
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Transparency
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Winston First
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Winston Peters
Brendan Horan promised to dish dirt on his former party yesterday, and he was as good as his word. Unfortunately, Winston Peters wasn't there; perhaps he was keeping a low profile after his disgraceful behaviour on Tuesday. The Herald reports:
While he denied he was running away from a fight, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters left his MPs to defend the party against claims by independent MP Brendan Horan the party misused taxpayer funding to raise cash and seek votes.
After weeks of ill-tempered exchanges between Mr Peters and his ousted caucus member, Mr Horan yesterday fronted up in Parliament with what he said was proof of misuse of parliamentary funding by the party.
Mr Horan claimed NZ First had spent as much as $20,000 in parliamentary funding from Mr Peters' leader's budget to develop and operate "taxpayer-funded software for party political purposes such as campaigning and fundraising".
Mr Horan also said NZ First parliamentary staff were working on running the Vanguard software during the election year.
"This is a clear breach of Parliamentary Service guidelines.
"I call on the leader of the party to open his leader's budget accounts to the scrutiny of the Speaker first and then the public of New Zealand."
Rules for parliamentary funding are intended to ensure the money is not used for party political purposes and the Parliamentary Service rules of conduct state that parliamentary staff, must, in the course of their work "avoid electioneering, political party business (i.e. acting for the non-parliamentary branch of the party, such as political party administration, fundraising or campaign related activities), and other actions that are party political in nature".
Mr Horan said the public had "a right to know what their money is being used for and whether it is being used legally" and last night confirmed he had lodged a complaint with Speaker David Carter. Mr Carter's office did not respond to requests for comment.
We commend Mr Horan for standing up to the man who unilaterally sacked him, in a manner totally contrary to the principles of fairness and natural justice. Here, courtesy of In the House is his Budget Debate speech from yesterday afternoon:
The worst aspect of this was the attempts by Winston First lobby-fodder MP's Barbara Stewart, Richard Prosser and Andrew Williams to deny Mr Horan a voice. There were repetitive, unsuccessful points of order, all of which were over-ruled by the Assistant Speaker. And when Horan came to try to table documents in support of his allegations, the NZF MP's objected loudly on each occasion.
Now any MP has the right to object to leave being granted to table a document, without any reason being given. But yesterday's antics gave the perception, perhaps unfairly, that Horan had hit the jackpot, and that the Peters Party had been busted.
We look forward to hostilities being resumed, the next time Mr Peters considers a trip to Parliament worthy of his time. And we look forward to the outcome of the Speaker's investigation into these allegations of further wrongdoing by the party leader who was censured by his peers in 2008 for wilfully misleading them.
UPDATE: Over at Your NZ, Pete George notes that the Grey Power meeting Peters claimed to be attending is actually on today, and notes:
We could not agree more.
UPDATE: Over at Your NZ, Pete George notes that the Grey Power meeting Peters claimed to be attending is actually on today, and notes:
And very ironic. An MP well known for his attacks on others in Parliament seems unwilling to be on the receiving end of accusations.
There could be another reason for his absence yesterday, but why would he make up an excuse that is easily proven incorrect? Why would the event be removed from the NZ First website?
There’s a perception that Peters is trying to hide something, or hide from something.
His accusations on Tuesday have been called the worst seen in Parliament for a long time. Is NZ First reacting to that? Is Peters not prepared to face an accuser? Or is he trying to hide something?
He was Missing In Action and making things up yesterday. He would be one of the first to hold another MP to account for anything like that.
We could not agree more.
