7 September 2006

Brownlee and Smith should be ashamed

Green Party Co-Leader Jeanette Fitzsimons is demanding an apology from National MPs Gerry Brownlee and Nick Smith over false allegations that today misled the House.

Brownlee claimed to have proof that Ms Fitzsimons had colluded with Climate Change Minister David Parker over questions in the House.

Brownlee said he had a document, which had gone either from the Minister to Ms Fitzsimons or vise versa, the implication being that the Minister's answers were pre-scripted for Ms Fitzsimons' questions.

This was not the case.

"Had Gerry actually bothered to read the document he would have realized that the questions listed were not the ones I was asking, bar the primary, which had already been widely published," Ms Fitzsimons says.

"In fact, the document appears to be an internal Labour Party briefing sheet, including a supplementary question to Mr Parker from his colleague Labour MP Moana Mackey - not one from Ms Fitzsimons' as Mr Brownlee told the House.

"This statement was clearly false and misleading and I believe he should apologise to the House and to me. Smith later tabled the document describing it as questions and prepared answers from David Parker, perpetuating Brownlee's colleague's false assumption.

"Anyone actually listening to the questions would have realized that the one I was asking was nothing like the one on his piece of paper. Both of them should be ashamed for their reckless disregard for the truth.

ENDS

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