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New Zealand rejects calls to sack foreign minister over donation

Other News Materials 27 August 2008 09:40 (UTC +04:00)

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark rejected demands on Wednesday to sack Foreign Minister Winston Peters over a cash donation from a billionaire businessman, dpa reported.

Clark faced persistent questioning in parliament after the release of a letter from billionaire Owen Glenn saying that Peters had asked him for money towards a legal bill in 2005 and later thanked him personally for his 100,000 New Zealand dollars (about 70,000 US dollars) donation.

Peters has previously insisted that he did not ask Glenn for money and knew nothing about the donation until his lawyer, Brian Henry - who never disclosed the names of donors he solicited - revealed it to him last month.

Parliament's privileges committee is considering the issue following a complaint by opposition Member of Parliament Rodney Hide that Peters had broken parliamentary rules by failing to declare the donation.

Glenn is an expatriate New Zealander who lives in Monaco, and reportedly lobbied to be appointed New Zealand's honorary consul to that country.

Clark's Labour Party has acknowledged that Glenn donated 500,000 New Zealand dollars to it before the last election in 2005 and he was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit early this year.

Peters leads the nationalist New Zealand First party, which supports Labour's minority government in return for his foreign affairs portfolio.

Glenn's letter to the privileges committee was released on Wednesday and Peters immediately issued a letter of rebuttal saying that the billionaire's version of events "does not coincide with my recollections."

Clark told questioners there was "clearly a conflict of evidence on the issue" and she would not comment further until the committee, which will meet again on September 4, makes its report to parliament.

Hide told reporters, "It's very clear now that Winston Peters has misled the public of New Zealand. His credibility has been shot to bits."

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