Brian Rudman: Hide risks entanglement in Banks' dirty linen

Don't tell me Act leader Rodney Hide is going all soft and cuddly in his old age. First he gave sanctuary to former Auckland mayor John Banks' campaign manager.

That was last September, after this paper unmasked Brian Nicolle as the man behind the anonymous smear leaflet drop against rival candidate Dick Hubbard.

Now Mr Hide is taking pity on Mr Nicolle's defeated boss as well, hinting there's a place for Mr Banks on Act's parliamentary list for this year's election.

For a leader who has made his reputation by ferreting out other people's dirty linen and waving it aloft, you have to wonder if Mr Hide's political loyalties aren't overwhelming his better judgment.

A more prudent person might have waited for the results of the off-again, on-again police investigations into the Banks campaign's linen basket before being so supportive.

How embarrassing it would be for Mr Hide if everything in that basket doesn't come up whiter than white.

The latest round of speculation about Mr Banks' resurrection popped up on TV3 news on Wednesday with a report that the defeated mayor and former National Party minister was close to accepting a place on the Act list.

Neither Mr Banks nor Mr Hide would confirm this but Mr Hide was reported as saying the former mayor had been "a good supporter of mine, right from the time I turned up in Parliament in 1996, and a good supporter of getting taxes down, and getting tough on the criminals".

Talking of getting tough, in mid-January mayor Mr Hubbard filed a new complaint with electoral officer Dale Ofsoske, complaining that Mr Banks' election expenses return contains no reference to the cost of printing and distributing the "dirty tricks" leaflets.

Mr Ofsoske has referred the complaint to Auckland police.

The leaflet became a major scandal last September when it began appearing in letterboxes around the city. It was an authorised reprint of a National Business Review "hatchet job" on Mr Hubbard that had appeared four days before.

Mr Hubbard immediately sued NBR for defamation, but the leaflet drop continued. Mr Nicolle initially denied any involvement but after Herald revelations, he admitted he had "facilitated the distribution", apologised to Mr Banks and resigned. Mr Banks said he knew nothing.

Mr Hubbard wrote to Mr Ofsoske claiming the Banks campaign had breached the Local Electoral Act by failing to state on the leaflet who was distributing it. Police refused to investigate unless Mr Hubbard officially complained. Mr Hubbard did not.

He decided to wait until after Mr Banks had submitted his return of campaign expenses, to see whether the cost of printing and distributing the 30,000 copies was included.

Mr Banks' return contained no specific reference to the leaflets, nor to any payment to Mr Nicolle, his fulltime campaign manager.

Mr Banks said at the time that Mr Nicolle acted without his knowledge and made "a critical error of judgment".

Where this leaves Mr Nicolle is interesting. The act says "no person may publish or cause to be published" election material promoting a candidate unless it is authorised in writing by the candidate or the candidate's agent. In this context, presumably, Mr Nicolle was the candidate's agent.

One thing is clear - it's all very messy. But despite this dirty linen, Mr Hide not only gave Mr Nicolle a fulltime job in his office, saying he was "lucky" to have him, but claimed he "was badly treated by the campaign and the way the media thought there was a breach of the rules".

Just for good measure, Mr Hide also hired Mr Banks' press secretary, Cameron Brewer, as his own.

And as if that wasn't enough help for his old mate, Mr Hide then let fly with some of Mr Hubbard's dirty linen, launching a campaign "exposing" business development grants received recently by the mayor's cereal company.

For Mr Hide, firing dirty linen into the air and ducking is all in a day's work. Until the inquiry into the Auckland mayoral election is complete, he'd better keep in practice. Just in case.