Winston Peters. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Winston Peters. Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

Winston Peters was defiant to the last minute of a two-hour debate in Parliament today but at the end of it MPs voted 62-56 to censure him over the $100,000 donation from billionaire businessman Owen Glenn.

The privileges committee called for him to be censured in a report it released last night, saying the New Zealand First leader must have had some knowledge of the donation which was made in December 2005.

The committee decided he had knowingly misled Parliament by not declaring the donation, and was therefore in contempt of its rules.

Mr Peters still insists he knew nothing about the donation until July this year.

The committee's conclusion was supported by eight of its 13 members. The other five did not agree, and those opinions were reflected when the censure vote was taken.

National, the Greens, the Maori Party, ACT, United Future and two independent MPs supported the censure motion. Labour and NZ First opposed it.

During the debate attention focused on the events of December 14, 2005, when Mr Peters held a phone conversation with Mr Glenn.

Immediately after that he called his lawyer Brian Henry, and minutes after that call Mr Henry emailed Mr Glenn giving his bank account details so the donation could be paid into it.

Mr Glenn's evidence to the committee's inquiry was that the donation was discussed when he spoke to Mr Peters.

"Members of the committee believe it is extremely unlikely that the donation wasn't mentioned," said National MP Simon Power, the chairman of the privileges committee, when today's debate began.

"The email indicates it must have been."

Green Party co-leader Russel Norman said the sequence of events was compelling evidence, and he believed Mr Peters did know about the donation.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said there had been a lot of drama around the inquiry but the issue hinged around the events of December 14.

It boiled down to whether or not the donation was mentioned during Mr Peters' conversation with Mr Glenn.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, a member of the committee, said there had been contradictory evidence about that because Mr Peters said the donation was not mentioned.