KEY POINTS:
Further embarrassment heaped on Winston Peters. More worry and discomfort for Helen Clark. Further vindication for John Key.
The Owen Glenn voodoo strikes again. Just when Peters thought he had finally put Glenn behind him, the expatriate business tycoon returns to haunt him 10 days before the election.
Peters gave every impression during last month's privileges committee hearings that, as Foreign Minister, he had resisted Glenn's request to be appointed New Zealand's honorary consul to Monaco. Peters said it was never a runner; it was never going to happen.
It didn't happen. However, it now turns out from Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents that Peters was actually pushing hard for Glenn's appointment - against officials' advice.
Peters has been caught out. He cannot simply dismiss the papers as being "more stale than Colin Meads' football boots". Owen Glenn donated $100,000 to Peters and NZ First. Peters subsequently put Glenn's name forward for the Monaco appointment. The onus is on Peters to satisfy voters the two developments were not connected.
As a minimum, Peters now has a credibility problem in failing to be upfront with the privileges committee and the public.
Will it damage his campaign? It is not going to kill it. But it will surely give pause for thought for those voters with short memories who were once again leaning Peters' way.
In the past six weeks, the odds on NZ First making it back to Parliament had gone from overwhelmingly against to about 50-50. They will now have lengthened again.
Peters has been campaigning hard. But he has not come up with a "magic bullet" by way of policy plank or red-hot issue to propel his party above the 5 per cent threshold.
He is relying far more on his record in delivering on his promises during the last three years, especially to the elderly. But he is handicapped by everyone knowing there will be no money in the Treasury's coffers to enable him to extract further spending concessions from the next Government.
Labour will be worried. Not so much because Helen Clark might be further damaged by Labour's association with Peters. Far more pressing is Labour's need for NZ First to make it back to Parliament to increase Labour's chances of shutting National out of Government.
Meanwhile, Key's refusal to deal with Peters after the election has been given fresh justification at the very time that stance was coming under serious question.
