MP: Mum bullied into switching phone companies

John Carter said he was upset by the way a Slingshot representative spoke to his mother. Photo / Northern Advocate

National MP John Carter has accused telecommuncations provider Slingshot of aggressive tele-marketing and bullying his 86-year-old mother into transferring the home phone line to a Slingshot account.

At the end of last year, a Slingshot representative called his Northland home and tried to persuade his mother to change from a Telecom account, covered by Parliamentary Services, to a Slingshot account.

"They rang up, got my mother, who was very confused, and they said, 'you agree to this' and you can hear her saying, 'no, you need to talk to [John Carter]', and then they said, 'thanks very much, we'll do the transfer'," Mr Carter said.

"They moved my home account without my permission, and more importantly it's Parliamentary Services, and they should have asked Parliamentary Services.

"What I was upset about was the way they talked to my mother."

A Slingshot spokesman said it was a mere misunderstanding and the account was transferred back and fully credited.

"While the telemarketer was over zealous in convincing Mrs Carter to save money with Slingshot, she did agree to transfer services. A review of our verification process was completed to ensure this confusion does not occur again."

John Carter called up Slingshot and demanded the account be transferred back to the Telecom account paid for by Parliamentary Services. This took place at the end of last year.

His mother, who he did not want named, is living with him in his electorate home, where he is entitled to have his phone line covered by Parliamentary Services.

The incident resolves the mystery behind allegations that Labour MP Chris Carter was using taxpayers' money to pay for his mother's home phone line.

On Sunday blogger Cameron Slater, on his whaleoil blogsite, launched a vitriolic attack on Chris Carter for being a "trougher" and suffering from "entitle-itis" for having his mother's phone bill picked up by the taxpayer.

But Chris Carter said that was not possible, as his mother had died 17 years ago.

Yesterday Mr Slater unreservedly apologised to Chris Carter.

"I sincerely apologise and will remove the posts about yourself and your sister. I will also post this apology on my blog," he wrote in an email to Chris Carter, who called Mr Slater to accept the apology.

Earlier Chris Carter told the Herald that Mr Slater had "behaved despicably".

"To make allegations against people with no evidence whatsoever, particularly in the circumstances where my mother had been dead for some time, was very upsetting for my family.

"I'm a politician so I am used to this sort of thing but certainly for my brother and sister they were very upset that my mother got dragged into this."

The Members' Handbook of Services states that MPs are allowed to have their telecommunication services paid for, so long as they are used for parliamentary duties.

A constituent MP is entitled to four line rentals and a cell phone rental and user charges; a list MP is allowed three line rentals plus a cell phone and user charges.

The line rentals are usually for a home, an out-of-Parliament office, and a private address in Wellington.