Don Brash MP
National Party Leader

18 July 2006

Brash calls on Clark to order Commission of Inquiry

National Party Leader Don Brash is calling on Helen Clark to order a Commission of Inquiry into the behaviour of Labour MP Taito Phillip Field, given the glaring omissions from the Noel Ingram report released today.

“How much credibility can the public of New Zealand attach to an inquiry where key witnesses were never interviewed?

“Dr Ingram has himself signalled that the scope of his inquiry was extraordinarily narrow, and that he had been given no more powers than a private citizen.

“Dr Ingram goes as far as to suggest that if the Government wants to get to the bottom of serious allegations against Mr Field, a further inquiry should be considered by an authority with wider powers.

“From the very beginning Helen Clark set up this inquiry to fail. Now she is pinning her Government’s majority on a shabby half-a-million-dollar report that proves nothing.”

Dr Brash says the conduct of Taito Philip Field needs to be subjected to proper scrutiny by an investigation with teeth, and that’s why he is pushing for a Commission of Inquiry.

“Neither Helen Clark nor Mr Field can take any comfort from this powerless inquiry.

“In her desperation, the Prime Minister is obviously willing to forgive almost any misdemeanour by Mr Field in order to keep Labour in office, and herself in Premier House,” says Dr Brash.

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