ALLEGATIONS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED

National Party President Michelle Boag said today that a complaint to the Serious Fraud Office about National Party funding prior to the 1996 election as clearly politically motivated.

“The Serious Fraud Office has today confirmed that the office is investigating an allegation, but the Party has not been told what the allegation is, who made the complaint or why it is being investigated,” said Ms Boag

“Despite this, as soon as we became aware of the allegation last Friday we compiled all the relevant documentation and yesterday, through our legal representative, we offered it to the SFO completely of our own volition,” she said.

“It is however extremely concerning that the first we heard of this investigation was when our Leader, Bill English, received a call from the SFO Director, David Bradshaw, saying that an investigation had been launched and he had already advised the Attorney-General, Margaret Wilson.

“There is absolutely no justification for advising our political opponents of a baseless allegation by an unknown person whose motives are clearly political. Mr Bradshaw and the SFO are clearly being used as a political tool by people who are trying to divert attention away from the Prime Minister and her problems with the Police.

“There are legitimate questions to be asked about why and how this information has been released, and we intend to pursue the answers vigorously,” Ms Boag said.

Ms Boag said the records for the relevant period in the party’s history had been fully audited and all donations to the party had been accounted for.

“Even though this occurred six years ago, our records clearly show that there is absolutely no foundation whatsoever for these inaccurate and politically motivated allegations,” Ms Boag said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media