Peters has another chance

ONE NEWS: The Prime Minister has stepped back from the brink and given her troublesome minister Winston Peters yet another chance to ride out the secret donations saga.

He was given a stay of execution after his evidence to Parliament's Privileges Committee.

"The general consensus seemed to be that he raised enough issues for there to be no pre-mature action today," said Helen Clark on Thursday.

Until Peters appeared at Wednesday night's Privileges Committee hearing, it had seemed Clark didn't have an option - the evidence presented by expatriate billionaire Owen Glenn the day before appeared to have presented an iron-clad case.

But Peters stuck to his story that he never knew about a $100,000 donation from Glenn until his lawyer Brian Henry told him in July of 2008.

The money was paid into Henry's account as payment for fees the lawyer had charged for working on an election petition launched by Peters.

Glenn had already produced his evidence - the billionaire delivered a paper trail of phone records and emails he said proved Peters had asked for a $100,000 donation in December 2005, and had thanked him for it in January of 2006.

Phone records show he called Peters in December of 2005. Glenn claims during that call they discussed a donation.

But Peters says he could not recall a donation being discussed.

"We would have discussed a number of matters but I do not recall talking to him about money during that conversation," Peters told the Privileges Committee.

Peters insisted, again, that it was his lawyer Henry who asked Glenn for the money but the testimony left many key questions unanswered and a there is still a raft of contradictory evidence.

The committee decided to hold another meeting on Tuesday next week when Henry will be called to explain a crucial email he sent to Glenn which referred to a conversation with "my client".

It had been assumed the client was Peters, but the MP told the committee it was someone else.

He did not say who that was, and Henry will be asked to explain.

Glenn claims he asked Peters for the bank account details of his lawyer Brian Henry and produced an email showing the account number was sent through immediately after that phone call.

National MP Gerry Brownlee, on the Privileges Committee, asked Peters never asked Henry why Owen Glenn had asked for his bank account details.

But Peters replied saying that Henry was a professional and he felt it was no business of his to question him on that.

National went on the offensive in Parliament today saying Helen Clark's hands were tied.

"Can the Prime Minister confirm the now wide-spread rumour, that the reason she won't sack Winston Peters is because he might go feral on her, in the same way Owen Glenn has and he knows where the bodies are buried," National deputy leader Bill English said.

Peters will welcome Labour's support, although it is qualified.
"He adopts a belligerent stance and that makes people less likely if you like to give him a due process to work things through," says Clark.

Winston Peters has stood down as foreign minister but still holds his ministerial warrant.

It's believed that Owen Glenn's rant against the Labour Party and its top members is what changed Clark's mind about sacking Peters.

There were worries that Labour would not be able to handle both Glenn's rants and the expected rants from Peters around the same time, had he been removed from government entirely.

How this decision has affected New Zealanders views on the Labour Party will be known when the ONE News Colmar-Brunton poll releases its latest results this Sunday.