Questions were raised about New Zealand First leader Winston Peters' integrity in Parliament today.
Mr Peters is in Singapore so it was left to Prime Minister Helen Clark to defend her Foreign Affairs, Racing and Associate Senior Citizens Minister.
Mr Peters has been under fire after emphatically denying getting a $100,000 donation from billionaire Owen Glenn but then revealing the money had been used to pay a legal bill.
Mr Peters said he did not know about the donation until his lawyer Brian Henry told him on Friday. ACT leader Rodney Hide has asked the Speaker to launch a privileges committee inquiry.
This morning The Dominion Post reported NZ First also got multiple donations from the wealthy Vela family's fishing and thoroughbred companies written out to NZ First from around 1999 to 2003 - made out for amounts under $10,000.
Donations of more than $10,000 or multiple donations of smaller amounts from the same company or person in one year have to be declared.
National leader John Key bombarded Prime Minister Helen Clark with questions about Mr Peters.
He said it appeared that some of the $150,000 the Vela family had anonymously donated had not made it into NZ First accounts.
"If so, what steps is she going to take to protect the integrity of her administration against serious allegations of this nature?" Mr Key asked in Parliament.
NZ First in a statement earlier today said the newspaper was running a smear campaign of unsubstantiated allegations and there was nothing illegal about the donations.
Tonight Mr Peters said on TV One's CloseUp programme the allegations were "without substance, without detail, without facts and are downright lies".
Mr Peters did not directly answer questions from presenter Mark Sainsbury about whether NZ First received any money from the Vela family.
Question: "You've accused both the Herald and The Dominion Post of lying. Are you going to take them to court?"
Mr Peters: "Just wait until I get back to New Zealand, I'll sort that out.
"Don't you guys go to any trouble because I'll be bringing that with me."
Green Party co-leader Russel Norman asked about Mr Peters' role getting tax breaks for the racing industry: "Did he declare the very substantial donations that NZ First received from the racing industry?"
Miss Clark responding by hitting out at National: "On racing matters the National Party in 2005 announced very big tax breaks for the racing industry in their eleciton policy and I challenge the National Party and Mr Key as the chief fund-raiser to say how much they recieved from racing interests."
ACT leader Rodney Hide raised the point that Mr Glenn had sought the position of honourary consul to Monaco where he lives and talked to Mr Peters as Foreign Minister about it.
Miss Clark said she accepted Mr Peters' word he did not know about the anonymous donation until a few days ago.
"If Mr Peters did not know that that donation had been given he could not have done a favour in return for it."
Miss Clark this morning said not declaring donations was a serious allegation and if people had concerns they should complain to appropriate authorities, such as the Auditor-General, registrar of pecuniary interests Dame Margaret Bazley, or Inland Revenue.
However, Mr Key said she was abdicating responsibility as the Cabinet Manual which ministers must abide by stated rules around gifts.
"Will the Prime Minister be giving Winston Peters her express permission as required by section 2.79 of the Cabinet Manual to retain the $100,000 he received from Owen Glenn? If not why not?"
Miss Clark said she would take advice on the issue as it had changed from an anonymous donation to a named donation.
Mr Key said the Government with New Zealand First's support had pushed through the Electoral Finance Act designed to make election funding more transparent.
"Did she expect she would be standing in the House defending Mr Peters who seemed to receive $100,000 but didn't want to tell anyone about it?"
Miss Clark said that was a "bit rich" considering how much the National Party benefited from anonymous donations.
Dr Norman asked if the scandal showed the need to ban anonymous donations and Miss Clark agreed, saying public funding would remove problems.
During the long exchange NZ First MPs rose repeatedly to laud Mr Peters' achievements as Foreign Minister.
Eventually the party's deputy leader Peter Brown told National to "put up or shut up."
