Clark fends off calls to pay back money

Helen Clark

Prime Minister Helen Clark says calls for Labour to pay back $446,000 of public money it spent on its election pledge card is a National Party "beat-up", despite two polls showing overwhelming support for such a move.

National has called on Labour to pay back the pledge-card money, as well as any other parliamentary funding found by Auditor-General Kevin Brady to be illegal.

National claims Mr Brady's final report will find Labour spent over $800,000 illegally in the run up to last year's election.

National has already paid back $10,500 wrongly spent by its MPs. The Maori Party has paid back $53 wrongly spent.

National's finance spokesman John Key yesterday said Labour MPs and Cabinet Ministers had gained from the party's re-election and should personally pay back any public money found to be spent illegally.

Last week a Herald Digi-poll found 81 per cent of people wanted Labour to pay back the cost of the pledge card and on Saturday 77 per cent of respondents to a TV3 TNS poll said the same.

But The Prime Minister said today the Auditor-General had not yet asked any party to pay back money.

"That is a National Party slogan. The Auditor-General has never asked for money to be paid back by political parties," she said on Newstalk ZB.

"That is really just a National Party beat-up."

She believed the main focus of the Auditor-General's investigation was looking at how the Parliamentary Service applied the rules.

She said National was inviting a very strong response to its "lies".

She repeated claims that National was guilty of accepting money from the Exclusive Brethren and tailoring its ACC policy to donors' wishes.

Mr Key yesterday said Labour MPs had benefited through their election and should pay a percentage of the money they would have lost if they had been voted out.

He suggested Prime Minister Helen Clark should pay back $22,813, Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen, $15,150, the 17 other Cabinet Ministers $17,066, the six ministers outside Cabinet $11,319, and Labour's 25 backbenchers $2000.

At that rate it would only take a year to pay back the pledge card.

If Labour was found to have illegally spent $800,000, they would have to pay those amounts back for two years.

- NZPA