KEY POINTS:
There must have been times when Helen Clark wished she could issue a cease-and-desist order to shut ex-pat billionaire Owen (Oggi) Glenn up (permanently).
The Prime Minister has made a political fetish out of her campaign for transparency and accountability in the democratic process.
How ripe then that
her Government - that bunch of co-conspirators who rammed through the assault on our democracy that is the Electoral Finance Act - should find themselves hoist by their Owen petard within weeks of the legislation coming into effect. Courtesy of Oggi's revelations we now know that:
* Glenn extended Labour a $100,000 interest-free loan so it could buy computers and organise professional fund-raising to drum up the $800,000- plus figure the Auditor-General found it had unlawfully plundered from taxpayers' coffers to fund its 2005 election campaign.
* Labour Party president Mike Williams misled the public on this score after Glenn was awarded a gong in the New Years Honours when he said there had been no further donations by the businessman since he gave Labour $500,000 donation for the 2005 election.
* The $100,000 has been paid back and will be reflected in Labour s 2008 electoral donations return.
* Glenn recalls a conversation at the Millennium Cup in which Clark appeared to want to lure him back to New Zealand to stand for Parliament and become Transport Minister. Clark says it never happened and the first time they met was at a Sydney tourism function when she was dressed as a paua.
* Glenn expects NZ First Leader and Foreign Minister Winston Peters to appoint him as honorary consul to the Monaco tax haven when he gets "off his arse".
* Glenn has referred to NZ First questions over whether he also donated cash to that party after the 2005 election.
* NZ First president Dail Jones cannot rule out that an anonymous donation to the party of between $10,000 to $100,000 came from Glenn. Peters says it didn't.
* Former Labour Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff ruled out earlier requests by National MP Richard Worth, who is Monaco's New Zealand representative, to appoint a consul in the principality. Clark and Williams have discussed the Monaco appointment.
* Entertainer Howard Morrison was offered $1 million by Glenn to stand as an independent for Parliament.
* Morrison put Glenn's name forward three times for an honour in the past.
But the gong didn't come until last year's New Years list which appointed Glenn an Officer of the Order of Merit on the basis of his philanthropic contributions and business success.
* Clark chaired the Cabinet honours committee that approved the honour. She was also aware of the $100,000 loan but couldn't comment on Williams' misleading statement at New Year as she was out of the country in early January.
Williams offered his resignation as party president to Clark who has rejected it. But Williams is not employed by Clark. The resignation offer should have been made to the party's ruling council.
* Labour has received other "interest- free loans" from rich party branches.
Such a run of events would normally call for an inquiry. But New Zealand does not have standing bodies like corruption commissions which can make independent investigations off their own bat.
What we do have is a Justice Minister who, according to her risible comments in Parliament this week, does not understand basic electoral law over what constitutes a political donation.
The businessman who has spent his entire adult life outside New Zealand forging an international business in the freight-forwarding arena is no stool pigeon.
His philanthropic contribution of $7.5 million to the University of Auckland Business School resulted in the university deciding to reward his generosity by naming its new building after him.
He is genuine in his desire to inspire a new generation of Kiwi entrepreneurs. It is a major pity that other entrepreneurs, particularly those who make a killing from the sale of state assets, don't follow suit.
But Glenn still has unmet expectations over the Monaco position.
There are real issues over whether the businessman does qualify for the consul's role.
He is not resident in Monaco for most of the year.
He also has plans to sell his Monaco-based business, which suggests the relationship could be tenuous at best. Peters will have to think hard on this one.
Labour has also countered National's attacks by asking what strings that party has pulled in return for the raft of anonymous business donors which bankroll its own electoral campaigns.
It demonises National's leader John Key as a "rich prick" and now claims he is secretly bankrolling his party.
Labour can't have it both ways. If Key is a "rich prick", what does that make Glenn?
Williams and Clark brought this house of cards down on themselves by not keeping to the same standards of accountability and transparency they demand from others. Thank goodness Glenn is made of more open stuff.
