Media Release

9 June 2003

Clark Not Above Suspicion

New Zealand First finds it extraordinary that Helen Clark today has the temerity to be surprised and disappointed by the latest challenge to the Maori fisheries allocation issue.

“Ms Clark is relying on the poor memories of New Zealanders and must surely be challenged on the facts. Before the Maori Fisheries Act was passed in 1989 I warned that there was no distribution mechanism in the legislation but Palmer and Clark proceeded to create the vacuum that continues to delay resolution today. National were also warned at the time of the Sealords deal in 1992 that the distribution process was still unresolved. Labour raised no opposition then either,” Leader Winston Peters said.

“It is a bit rich for Ms Clark, some 15 years after she helped create the monster, to express impatience with the process. The insane policy of selling off New Zealand’s state assets was exacerbated by poorly constructed legislation and suspect commercial deals. The Prime Minister is now asking us to overlook her culpability.

“There is little chance that New Zealanders will forget the poorly conceived sale of fishing rights in perpetuity, or the sale of Air New Zealand, or our railways. How can we forget when now we are having to to buy them back? Ms Clark, like Caesar’s wife, is guilty as charged and ought to be held accountable,” Mr. Peters said.

ENDS

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