Green Party Co-Leader Rod Donald said today he would not be apologising to
Defence Minister Max Bradford after revealing that taxpayer money was wasted
on a glitzy conference.

Mr Bradford has accused Mr Donald of implying that he (Mr Bradford) had
concealed facts about military attendance at the World Masters Of Business
Seminar in May and has demanded an apology from Mr Donald.

"Mr Bradford is trying to divert attention away from the gross waste of
money by Defence and his responsibilities for it, Mr Donald said.

Mr Donald said he had no intention of apologising "for highlighting the
obscene waste of money and for pointing out that the minister should have
known that army and navy personal attended the Masters Of Business Seminar
by July 28".

"I alerted Mr Bradford that army and navy staff had booked a 10 seat table
each for $6750 in the House and this was covered in a front page article in
the Dominion on July 28," he said.

"This revelation should have been enough to spur Max into action but
apparently he only investigated further when forced to by my written
parliamentary question," Mr Donald said.

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