KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has expressed confidence in Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor for the first time since he made the heavily criticised decision to take a suspended prison officer on a parliamentary rugby tour.
The statement of confidence came yesterday as Labour attempted to ride out the awkward wait until the Cabinet reshuffle decides the final fate of Mr O'Connor.
While the Prime Minister could be viewed as having little option but to express confidence in her Corrections Minister - especially after she declined his offer to resign - she hadnotably avoided questions of confidence posed by reporters earlier in the week.
Yesterday's statement is understood to have come after a telephone conversation between the pair, who are likely to now let the matter lie until the reshuffle, expected before the end of next month.
Mr O'Connor again avoided a grilling from Opposition MPs in Parliament yesterday because of previously arranged engagements in Auckland.
That left his colleagues to defend him for a second day running, as National showed no sign of taking its foot off the accelerator in its calls for the removal of the West Coast-Tasman MP from the corrections portfolio.
National leader John Key - who has said he does not think the rugby incident on its own would be a hanging offence - asked the Prime Minister if she had confidence in the Minister of Corrections.
"Yes, because he's a hardworking and conscientious minister," Helen Clark replied.
Mr Key then referred to a series of problems in the corrections portfolio under Mr O'Connor, including the death of Liam Ashley after an attack in a prison van, the rampage of paroled killer Graeme Burton, cost overruns on prison projects, and investigations into corruption at prisons.
But the Prime Minister fought back by flinging in the face of National its own record with the tricky portfolio.
Asked then by Mr Key if she would give an assurance that Mr O'Connor would hang on to the corrections portfolio in the coming reshuffle, Helen Clark said she would no more give that assurance than National Party deputy leader Bill English would give a guarantee of continued support for Mr Key.
"I'm proud to lead a Government that doesn't have someone on its front bench who thinks it's funny to make cracks about why people don't get fat in concentration camps," she said, in reference to comments made by senior National MP Maurice Williamson a few weeks ago.
National's corrections spokesman, Simon Power, had a number of pointed questions for the absent Mr O'Connor, which were fielded by Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen.
Mr Power raised the prospect that the decision to take suspended prison officer Jim Morgan on the trip to France might have been seen as a personal endorsement by Mr O'Connor.
He also suggested the confidence of whistleblowers alerting the Corrections Department to internal problems might be dented by the action.
Mr O'Connor is due to front in the House for question time today.
