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New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has lashed out with a vicious personal attack on his fiercest critic over the mysterious donations, Act leader Rodney Hide.
Mr Peters dragged up a series of historic allegations relating to Mr Hide and made other personal insinuations in Parliament yesterday leading to an exchange that Speaker Margaret Wilson said came close to bringing the House into disrepute.
Mr Peters' attack came a day after Mr Hide lodged a complaint with the Serious Fraud Office about what happened to the donations intended to go to Mr Peters and New Zealand First made by billionaire Owen Glenn and Sir Robert Jones.
Mr Peters did not answer that, instead making allegations that included how Mr Hide promoted a golf course near Queenstown which now owed millions of dollars to creditors "where Mr Hide turned the first sod - and how appropriate was that?"
Mr Hide had sparked the exchange by asking how New Zealand could have any credibility advocating for openness and transparency in Pacific nations if Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Peters "does not practise what he preaches here in New Zealand" by not explaining what happened to the money in the Spencer Trust.
Mr Hide said Mr Peters explaining what happened to the money "would actually promote honesty and transparency in the Pacific far more than the old windbag going on these drunken trips does".
Several of Mr Peters' allegations against Mr Hide had been covered in the media before.
Mr Peters raised an incident on Waiheke Island, saying that Mr Hide had conspired with the Herald to cover it up - even though the newspaper broke the story in 2003, revealing Mr Hide was accused of taunting a group of men during a late-night drinking session, calling them "gays".
Mr Hide told the Herald Mr Peters was "simply trying to divert attention away from the pressing questions he faces and make allegations wildly about everyone else".
He said Mr Peters had been threatening to throw dirt at him if he continued to ask questions over donations to NZ First.
He said he was not affected by the attack, though Mr Peters was suggesting "I'm guilty of financial impropriety, bizarre sexual practice and various other misdemeanours" and insinuating he was gay.
"Quite how me being gay gets him off the hook I don't know". Asked if he was gay, Mr Hide replied: "Not yet."
