MP's drunken actions ring no bells with PM

The claim of former Labour MP Mark Peck that his lack of promotion to Cabinet was because he got drunk and stood on a table at a function has been laughed off by Prime Minister Helen Clark.

In this week's Listener magazine the former MP for Invercargill, who did not stand at the last election after admitting he was an alcoholic, said his drinking worsened after the 2002 election in which his majority was reduced from 8000 to 3000.

"I was really, really hurt by that and took it personally, which is one of the things you should never do in politics," he said.

"And at the caucus function to celebrate the election of the Government I got a little drunk. And Helen [Clark] came in reasonably late and I was commiserating with [MP] Georgina Beyer about something and I was standing on the table to do so."

Peck' wife Margaret tried to get him down but Helen Clark had spotted him.

"Not only did I not get into Cabinet but I was not reappointed as chair of the finance and expenditure committee. And that was the final straw ... "

Helen Clark said she could not recall seeing Mr Peck behaving in that way. "With all respect to Mark Peck I have no recollection whatsoever of this incident and I am sure if I was present I was sober, apparently he wasn't," she said.

Mr Peck, 52, said after the table incident he avoided functions but drank and gambled on pokie machines alone in pubs - lying to his wife about where he was.

He also revealed that in July 2004 he was drunk when he announced by press release he would not stand for Parliament.

"I just did it and the next day I regretted it. Two weeks earlier I had come out all guns blazing in the local newspaper saying I was in this for the long haul ... so of course they said, 'what's changed?' I wasn't quite as honest as to say; 'I got pissed'."

Mr Peck underwent treatment for alcohol addiction last year after he was charged with drink-driving and careless use of a motor vehicle .

He is now director of the Smokefree Coalition.

- NZPA