9 September 2005

Brash still needs to come clean on involvement of Exclusive Brethren

Don Brash is continuing to provide evasive and misleading answers on his knowledge of the extent of the links between National and the Exclusive Brethren campaign, Labour MP Pete Hodgson said today.

“This morning on National Radio, Dr Brash in answering a question about his knowledge of the nature or scale of the campaign said;

“They told me they were going to drop some pamphlets attacking the government, that they would not be mentioning the National Party……”

“It is clear from this comment that the discussion at the meeting was not simply, as Dr Brash has previously said, that there would be a pamphlet campaign. If there was a discussion about what was not in the pamphlets, there surely must have been a discussion about what was in the pamphlets. In a meeting held only a matter of weeks ago, it is simply not credible that the detail of the pamphlets was not discussed.

“If it was necessary to point out that National was not mentioned in the pamphlets, the fact the Exclusive Brethren was directly assisting the National Party at the electorate level was presumably already known.

"New Zealanders need to know what else was on the agenda at this and the other meetings Don Brash held with the Exclusive Brethren. Dr Brash needs to release the dates, times and details of all the meetings he has held with the Exclusive Brethren since becoming leader of the National Party.

“Dr Brash’s credibility has been fundamentally compromised. He and his colleagues are telling totally inconsistent stories. They are proving that they are unfit to be in government.

“The National Party also needs to come clean on the extent of the overall relationship between the Exclusive Brethren and their campaign.

National’s campaign Manager Stephen Joyce has admitted they are working on some electorate campaigns, but we have reports from all around the country of National Party material being delivered by Exclusive Brethrens and vice versa. The question that needs to be answered is, who approached who about this, and when did it happen?” Pete Hodgson said.

ENDS

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