National's confidential emails reach NZ First

Winston Peters

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has what he calls "a telephone book" of confidential National Party emails.

He said in Parliament yesterday that one of them canvassed how National was planning to get him "on side" with the National Party after the recent election.

Mr Peters did not quote from it and declined to show them to the Herald, but he quoted from another one said to be from Peter Keenan, one of the closest advisers to National leader Don Brash.

His disclosure suggests that Mr Peters may have been the source of many of the confidential National Party emails leaked to the news media during the election campaign.

National employed a private investigator to examine computers and laptops in Dr Brash's office but the inquiry was inconclusive.

The email from which Mr Peters quoted yesterday was addressed to Dr Brash, deputy leader Gerry Brownlee, MPs Murray McCully, Wayne Mapp and Pansy Wong, and former chief of staff Richard Long.

Mr Peters claimed it showed that "the National Party had the New Zealand Herald doing its work".

Mr Keenan is said to have written in his email: "One place to argue the case would be the New Zealand Herald's Perspectives page.

"We could use a slot we have available, a free slot, in the New Zealand Herald for you. Text to be in by this Friday."

Mr Peters told Parliament that the email showed "what a scurrilous piece of ragtag journalism we have to live with".

Mr Peters later told the Herald he had "a telephone book" of emails. (The Perspectives pages in the Herald are the comment and opinion pages - the editorial page and usually two or three pages that follow it. Some articles are commissioned, though publication is never guaranteed, some are contributed voluntarily and some are reprinted from the public domain, such as speeches.)

Mr Peters was facing a series of questions from National's foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully about his recent trip to Apec meetings in South Korea and what appeared to be differences between him and former Foreign Minister Phil Goff - including Mr Goff disclosing that Australian foreign Minister Alexander Downer had questioned the arrangement of Mr Peters being a minister but not part of Government, Mr Goff disputing Mr Peters' comments about monitoring Chinese students in New Zealand, referring to Mr Peters as possibly about to "brow-beat" the Chinese about the trade deficit and referring to Mr Peters as Cabinet's mother-in-law.

Mr Peters reiterated his complaints about news media reports of the trip and Mr Goff claimed that a series of mainly NZPA reports about the meeting were "totally untrue".

NZPA has taped interviews to back up all the comments Mr Goff was reported as saying.

A spokesman for Dr Brash said yesterday that the public might "now want to draw their own conclusion about who was behind the dirty tricks during the election campaign".

"These are just desperate diversionary tactics from a Government that's on the ropes over David Benson-Pope, the wananga and its bizarre coalition arrangements."


The true perspective

The "Perspective" pages to which Mr Peters referred are the Herald's comment and opinion pages.

Since May , Mr Peters has had three articles published on these pages: an 878-word speech on immigration on May 9; a 1376-word speech on National and Labour's "secret agenda;" and a 1620-word speech on September 8 on New Zealand First's post-election intentions.

In the same period National leader Don Brash has had one article published, an 1821-word speech on National's tax policy on August 23.