Peters: Haumaha call ‘nonsense’
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters telephoned under-fire top cop Wally Haumaha after the inquiry into his appointment was under way, National has claimed.
Police spokesman Chris Bishop used parliamentary privilege to allege the phone call, but didn’t provide evidence. Peters says the claim is ‘‘baseless nonsense’’.
Bishop, the Hutt South MP, told Parliament: ‘‘Winston Peters rang Wally Haumaha after the inquiry into the appointment was announced. He gave him assurances or words to that effect that things would be OK. That is deeply, wildly inappropriate. Winston Peters needs to explain ...’’
However, Peters has firmly rejected that. ‘‘I have not called nor had any reason to call Mr Haumaha since the controversy,’’ he said. ‘‘My office has checked all my phone records since the inquiry was announced. No such call was made. I’m swatting off this midge right now.’’
In a written statement, Peters said the public can have faith in the inquiry. ‘‘It was initiated by Cabinet, it is being conducted by a highly respected independent QC, and it will report back to Cabinet. The terms of reference have been publicly released,’’ he said. ‘‘The final report will be made public. ‘‘Regardless, any suggestion that New Zealand First ministers are seeking to unduly influence this inquiry is baseless nonsense.’’
Neither Winston Peters nor Police Minister Stuart Nash were in Parliament’s debating chamber when the fresh allegations were made yesterday afternoon.
Bishop also said Haumaha wasn’t the preferred candidate for the deputy commissioner role listed in a Cabinet paper on the appointment.
A spokeswoman for Nash said there were two candidates put forward for the role, and one was Haumaha.
His promotion is the subject of an inquiry after comments made by Haumaha in relation to Operation Austin – the investigation into rape allegations made by Louise Nicholas – surfaced.
Bishop said the Government narrowed the scope and cost of the inquiry to $150,000 over six weeks – making it ‘‘short and sharp’’. Officials suggested a longer and more expensive process, he said.
A draft Cabinet paper later shown to Stuff shows Department of Internal officials originally proposed an inquiry costing $840,000 and lasting for three months.
Peters, as acting prime minister, announced the inquiry on June 29, but didn’t say who would run it. Emails released to Bishop under the Official Information Act show officials were scrambling to set it up. By July 18, they were struggling to find a suitable candidate to lead the inquiry
The terms of reference were released on July 23, with Pauline Kingi as chair. However, she was forced to stand down over conflict of interest concerns. Mary Scholtens, QC, replaced her, and last week the inquiry was extended for a further five weeks.