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NZ First leader Winston Peters has indicated he will front up to the privileges committee again - and will reveal a conversation he has now recalled involving Owen Glenn.
Mr Peters would not talk to the media yesterday, but in Parliament he made a cryptic reference to a
conversation relating to "a critical piece of information". It follows a damaging letter from Mr Glenn to the committee, in which he said Mr Peters himself had "sought help" for his legal costs and later thanked him - despite the MP denying all knowledge of such a donation until recently.
In Parliament, Mr Peters referred to a conversation that seemed to date back to November 2005, around the time he was at an Apec meeting of foreign and trade ministers in Pusan, South Korea. Mr Glenn made the $100,000 donation to Mr Peters' lawyer, Brian Henry, in December 2005.
Mr Peters said he now remembered the time, date, who took part in the conversation, why it happened, "and what Mr Glenn said".
"I'm going to be telling the select committee, in public, all the details about that, as will Mr Henry."
Mr Peters' speech followed repeated attempts to prevent Act leader Rodney Hide from using parliamentary privilege to read from a 2004 interview transcript with a former Simunovich Fisheries skipper, Wayne Crapper.
Mr Crapper had given evidence in the 2003 select committee inquiry into the scampi industry, sparked by allegations against Simunovich over quota. The committee cleared the firm.
Mr Hide's five-minute speaking slot stretched to an hour as Mr Peters repeatedly sought to shut him down.
Mr Peters claimed Mr Hide was trying to "blackguard" him by using parliamentary privilege to reveal information at the "nub" of defamation cases being taken against TVNZ and Radio NZ by Mr Peters and Simunovich.
However, Mr Hide said the material was not before the courts and came from an interview with Mr Crapper in 2004 - after the defamation proceedings began - which was never broadcast or published.
Mr Hide said that in the interview Mr Crapper "claims his former boss Peter Simunovich told him to lie to the special select committee that had been set up to investigate Simunovich scampi fisheries practices".
"Mr Crapper says he lied to the select committee about not misreporting fish caught, the dumping of quota species and that he lied about throwing 12 years of his personal diaries overboard. He was told to get rid of the diaries by Simunovich."
He said Mr Crapper also said he was instructed by Simunovich Fisheries lawyers on how to prepare his affidavit and answer questions when giving evidence. Assistant Speaker Ross Robertson sought assurances from Mr Hide that he was not using sub judice material.
Mr Hide was ejected from Parliament's question time on Tuesday after claiming he had evidence Mr Peters had taken donations from Simunovich around the time of the inquiry.
