PM speaks out on Doone case

Former police commissioner Peter Doone and Prime Minister Helen Clark. Pictures / Fotopress, Nigel Marple

Prime Minister Helen Clark says she has not lost any sleep over the prospect of being sued by former police commissioner Peter Doone.

Mr Doone resigned as commissioner in January 2000 amid controversy that the previous year he had stopped a police officer breath-testing his now-wife Robyn Johnstone.

Mr Doone is preparing to sue Helen Clark after dropping a defamation action against the Sunday Star-Times over a now retracted story in which the newspaper said he had told the police officer "that won't be necessary".

Today Helen Clark spoke out on the issue for the first time since returning from Europe at the weekend.

She said on TV One's Breakfast show: "I have not lost sleep over any of this. I'm absolutely confident that the process followed was a proper one."

She said the Government had followed a proper process in its discussions with Mr Doone over the incident, and she was comfortable with her personal involvement in that process and her conversations with the Sunday Star-Times.

She said Cabinet was guided in its dealings with Mr Doone by reports from the Police Complaints Authority and then police deputy commissioner Rob Robinson, advice from the solicitor general, and responses from Mr Doone's lawyer, John Upton QC.

"At the end of that process the Government had lost confidence and that was why Mr Doone ended up resigning," Helen Clark said.

She said media reports "had no impact whatsoever on the Government's consideration of this issue".

Court documents have shown the Sunday Star-Times checked information about the late-night driving incident five times with the prime minister.

But on NewstalkZB the Prime Minister said she could not recall "what was said in conversations five and a quarter years ago".

Nor did she tape conservations she had with reporters. She did not know whether the Sunday Star-Times had taped its interviews with her.

"Over many years in politics many journalists have rung me on a regular basis to talk about issues, so what's the crime here -- talking to the news media?

Helen Clark said she did not know what Mr Doone was suing her for.

"A very full and proper process was gone through," she said. "We looked at the reports that were done, the reports that were done made it absolutely clear that the commissioner had intervened in a way which stopped the constable carrying out his duties as he normally would have."

Nor did she have any personal animosity toward the former commissioner. "I can't recall that I ever met him," she said.

- NZPA