Video: 'Who got to them?' asks PetersKEY POINTS:
Cystic Fibrosis Association chief executive Kate Russell says the charity returned a $10,000 donation from New Zealand First because of the depth of feeling about it among the public and association members.
She scoffed at suggestions by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters that the National Party "got to it" and persuaded it to return the $10,000.
The money was part of $157,934 NZ First sent to nine charities last week, the sum being the amount the party unlawfully spent in the 2005 election.
Other parties have repaid to Parliament the money they spent.
Mr Peters decided to attack National rather than the association in a bid to explain the return of a donation that Kate Russell had expressly sought in an email last December and said would not be returned.
From London last night, she laughed at the suggestion National had influenced the association and said: "It would be bloody nice if any of the political parties took any notice of us but we are so tiny they don't."
Kate Russell said the email was sent "before most people were in possession of all the facts and certainly before all of the charities were aware of the depth of public opinion with regard to this donation".
"Now, being in possession of the facts around how the New Zealand public and our own donors for that matter and members feel about this donation, we are turning it round."
Asked why she had not told New Zealand First she had changed her mind about being a recipient, she said she thought the party had changed its mind about giving money to charities.
"There had been such a long delay we assumed New Zealand First had decided not to give donations to anybody and that the problem had gone away."
Mr Peters, embarrassed that a second charity has returned a cheque - the Starship Foundation was the first - quoted in Parliament a letter New Zealand First received from the association on Tuesday thanking the party for its cheque.
"The support of people like you means so much to us at the association," the letter said. "To know we have friends like you, out there helping our cause, boosts our morale every day."
The letter was signed on behalf of Kate Russell by an office administrator who was unaware the chief executive had changed her mind.
"Who got to them?"Mr Peters asked in Parliament. "Was it the National Party like the Starship hospital?"
Kate Russell sent an email last December after publicity over the Starship Foundation returning the money on instructions from chairman Bryan Mogridge, who has been appointed to boards by the National Party in the past.
"Believe me when I say that ifthe donation came to my charity we would NOT turn it down," the email ended.
Last night, Kate Russell said if she had been in the country the cheque would have been returned politely with no furore. "But it has all become public and we have become a blimmin' political football."
