Procedural Duplicity
Wednesday 15 May 2002 Ken Shirley Press Releases -- Crime & Justice
"The Government's duplicitous procedures were exposed today in Parliament by my question to the Minister of Police,"
said ACT's Police Spokesman Ken Shirley.
"In the case of the fraud allegation against the Prime Minister the Police did not advise their Minister of the
investigation but under pressure from the Prime Minister's lawyer publicly released the name of the complainant.
"Conversely, with the Serious Fraud Office investigation into the National Party's receipt of the Fay Richwhite
cheques, we have that office informing the responsible Minister first but refusing to tell the National Party the
identity of the complainant.
"When questioned on this inconsistency, the Police Minister gave the limp explanation that both procedures were
correct. Clearly both procedures cannot be correct and the public can only assume that undue political pressure has been
applied to one or both of the Crown agencies to depart from normal procedures," concluded Ken Shirley.
For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at
act@parliament.govt.nz.