KEY POINTS:
Helen Clark says she has nothing to contribute to the privileges committee inquiry into the $100,000 Owen Glenn donation, despite confirming yesterday that Mr Glenn told her Winston Peters asked for the money.
The Prime Minister revealed only last Thursday that Mr Glenn told her and Cabinet minister Trevor Mallard privately that he had given a donation despite public denials by Mr Peters at the time.
She confirmed yesterday at the post-Cabinet press conference that as well as Mr Glenn telling her he had paid the money, Mr Peters had solicited it.
"We were left with the impression that Mr Peters asked for it."
Mr Peters' lawyer Brian Henry told the privileges committee that he - Mr Henry - had solicited it and that Mr Peters knew nothing about it. But Mr Glenn told the committee Mr Henry had made only brief contact to give bank account details for the payment.
Mr Peters stepped down on Friday as Foreign Minister while the Serious Fraud Office investigates separate donations to New Zealand First.
The privileges committee is meeting on Thursday to hear from Mr Peters again and is expected to discuss whether to call the Prime Minister.
Helen Clark did not say she would refuse to appear - the committee has the power of subpoena - but she indicated she could add nothing.
"The hearing is about whether the donation ... was a gift. I can't shed any light on that," she said.
However, central to whether the donation should have been declared by Mr Peters as a gift is whether he knew about the donation or not.
Act leader Rodney Hide said Helen Clark could help the privileges committee "enormously". She had been sufficiently concerned by what Mr Glenn had said to call Mr Peters in South Africa about it. The nature of the discussion would be of interest to the committee.
Mr Hide also said it would be helpful for Mr Henry to show the committee the phone record of the call he said he made to Mr Glenn in 2005.
Helen Clark said Mr Peters had given her a "categorical denial" when she discussed with him the issues Mr Glenn put to her.
The Prime Minister revealed the contents of the meeting with Mr Glenn last Thursday after a question from the Herald - in turn prompted by National deputy leader Bill English suggesting in Parliament that she had known.
She has defended her failure to disclose her knowledge any earlier, saying no one had asked the question.
But according to a TV3 news report, the day she met Mr Glenn at Auckland University, February 21, she would not discuss the meeting, saying it had been a private.
Asked about that discrepancy yesterday, she said: "It was a private meeting and I didn't get any pointed questions about 'did you discuss this? Did you discuss that?' It is very easy to be wise in hindsight and say, 'Why didn't you come out of these two conversations and make an announcement?' Why would you?"
