Government 'leaked election spending report'

National Party deputy leader Gerry Brownlee today accused the Government of leaking the thrust of a report into election spending -- that parties had not intentionally misspent public money.

The Controller and Auditor-General Kevin Brady handed the report to Parliament's Speaker Margaret Wilson last Friday. She is now taking legal advice as she prepares her response to the report, which is scheduled for release on Thursday.

National's concerns were heightened by a report in the Sunday Star-Times this weekend that the Auditor-General had been persuaded not to use the word "misappropriation" in his final report.

Mr Brownlee said the leak had compromised the integrity of the report "and the Speaker needs to move to get it released into the public domain so people can make up their own minds much more quickly than was planned".

"Leaving it until Thursday with her response attached effectively denies Parliament an opportunity to discuss it for yet another (week)," he told National Radio.

"That's just unfair and unreasonable."

Ms Wilson said no party in Parliament had seen the report or her response.

Labour Party strategist Pete Hodgson said it had not leaked the report's contents.

"No one will have seen the report," he said. "The Auditor-General is not going to give it to the Labour Party before he gives it to all other parties."

Labour had no control or influence over its release, he said.

National has accused Labour of corruption for using $446,000 of its allocated taxpayer funding to pay for its election pledge card.

The rules say such money should not be spent on electioneering.

Labour and other parties have accused Mr Brady of inconsistency. The party says the expenditure was approved under the same rules as its pledge cards for the previous two election campaigns.

Helen Clark told Newstalk ZB radio she would not comment about the report, or whether the party would pay back money if ordered to, until it was released.

"I'm not going into hypotheticals. We haven't seen the report. We will respond when we have," she said.

"I am not going to express any view on it. I've had quite a lot to say about it in the run up to it, we've made our submissions and we await the report."

- NZPA