Government Must Stand Dodson Down
Max Bradford National Defence Spokesperson
5 December 2001
Government must stand Dodson down
In light of information that has come forward today the Government has no choice now but to suspend Major General Dodson from his position as New Zealand Army Chief.
That's the call from National's Defence spokesperson Max Bradford who today tabled a letter in Parliament that appears to confirm someone outside the Army was shown a copy of New Zealand First MP Ron Mark's personal Army file.
"Considering that link clearly is within a tissue paper of Major General Dodson himself, we call on the Minister of Defence to suspend him immediately until the current Inquiry is completed.
"Failure by the Government to act on this will only result in their own complicity in a cover up, it is all getting too close now for them not to react," says Mr Bradford.
The letter tabled in Parliament today was from Communications Trumps who confirmed that an ex staff member was in possession of a page from Mr Mark's file and this page was shown to two staff members and a copy given to one.
The ex staff member is now in the New Zealand Territorial Army and on General Dodson's personal staff with responsibility for public relations.
Ends