Don Brash MP National Party Leader
07 June 2005
Another explanation sought from Helen Clark
"It's time for Helen Clark to release all the information she has on the Peter Doone case, after comments she welcomed
as being 'consistent with everything' that she had been saying were the subject of a weekend newspaper correction," says
Dr Brash.
The following correction appeared in The Press on Monday: 'On May 13 and May 17 The Press published stories about a
record of conversations between a reporter and Prime Minister Helen Clark in 2000. The stories quoted a confidential
source who said that, in the transcript, Clark urged a reporter "to go back to your source" to confirm what former
Police Commissioner Peter Doone said when he was stopped by a police patrol in central Wellington in 1999. The Press now
accepts that the transcript does not say "go back to your source". The paper regrets the error.'
"Helen Clark should release the transcripts. One-line leaks that turn out to be inaccurate don't do anyone any good,
least of all Helen Clark.
"National believes Helen Clark seeded false information to a newspaper at least five times over the Doone case. It would
appear she tried a similar tactic when questioned about Mike Williams' comments to newspapers about the Budget's
so-called 'deep dark secret'.
"Taxpayers deserve an explanation," says Dr Brash.
ENDS