National pushes for early release of spending report [+audio]

National is calling for an earlier release of the Auditor-General's final report into election spending, and wants assurances that details will not be leaked to Labour first.

The much-anticipated report is complete but will not be made public until Thursday, when Speaker Margaret Wilson will table it in Parliament with her response to it. The gap between completion and release has irked National, which worries that the delay might help Labour.

National deputy leader Gerry Brownlee yesterday said that because the report would not be released until Thursday, it would not be properly discussed in Parliament until the Tuesday after.

"It's inappropriate now for the Speaker to be complicit in denying Parliament for five days beyond the release date an opportunity to speak on the matter while clearly the ninth floor [of the Beehive] is in damage control overdrive. That's just unacceptable."

Margaret Wilson, a Labour list MP, last night responded with an assurance that the report would be tightly held. "No party has seen nor will see a copy of the reports I have until Thursday."

Asked if it was implicit in that statement that nobody would be told of the report's contents, a spokeswoman said it was.

The Speaker has 20 days to respond to the Auditor-General's report.

Prime Minister Helen Clark refused to take questions on the matter last night when she attended an Indian Diwali festival in Mangere.

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

National leader Don Brash last night said it was immaterial to the final verdict on Labour's election spending whether the term "misappropriation" had survived or been removed.

"You could use 'misappropriated', you could use 'stolen' - there's any number of words - but it's quite clear that taxpayers' monies were wrongly used."

- Additional reporting by Mathew Dearnaley