KEY POINTS:
New Zealand First will declare which charities it has given money to in its bid to atone for the $158,000 in taxpayer funds it unlawfully spent at the last election.
Party leader Winston Peters today confirmed NZ First had begun disbursing the money and said a full list would be provided to Speaker Margaret Wilson once the process was completed.
Yesterday, Mr Peters told the Herald he did not want to talk about the issue.
"When it's all done and some serious good has come of it, we'll let you know," Mr Peters said.
"But we don't intend the beneficiaries are going to be part of the snooping, prying, malcontented interests of certain people in the media."
Today he again attacked the media for its interest in the issue saying "perhaps it is time to review the rules governing overseas ownership of the New Zealand media".
Earlier this year several charities said they would willingly accept the $158,000 from NZ First after the Starship Foundation rejected a donation after the issue became politicised.
Auditor-General Kevin Brady found NZ First had unlawfully spent $158,000, part of $1.17 million of taxpayer funding wrongly spent by parties in the 2005 election campaign.
Parliament passed legislation to validate the spending but most political parties said they would pay the money back to the Parliamentary Service, which administers parliamentary spending, and did.
But Mr Peters said he wanted the money to go to a good cause.
He said several people had been critical of the decision to give the money to charity, but those same people were largely silent on National's move after the election to pay money it owed to creditors to charity so it did not breach its election spending limit.
Former NZ First president Dail Jones, now an MP, told NZPA in December about 20 charities had approached the party keen to receive a donation.
Happy to accept the money were the Cystic Fibrosis Association of New Zealand, Auckland SPCA, and Surf Lifesaving New Zealand.
- NZPA
