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Prime Minister Helen Clark is in damage-control mode as she tries to deflect fallout and calls for her party president to resign over a suggestion Labour should use Government department material for campaigning.
Yesterday, she said a proposal by a delegate at the party congress to use departmental brochures in this way was "an off-the-cuff suggestion" which she had killed as soon as she heard it.
However, last night One News reported that the delegate who made the initial suggestion was Martin Ward, who is on the Labour Party's ruling council and is the husband of Cabinet minister Ruth Dyson.
Ms Dyson is the Minister of Social Development - one of the departments whose Working for Families brochures Mr Ward recommended the party use.
Mr Ward was Ms Dyson's campaign manager in Banks Peninsula in 2005 and has also done Government consultancy work.
The Herald was unable to contact him last night and Ms Dyson did not respond to a request for comment. She told One News she was not responsible for her husband's views.
However, Mr Ward's suggestion in a closed session of the congress has landed Mr Williams in trouble - first because of his response that it was "a damn good idea" and then for his subsequent denial of it on Agenda at the weekend. He was caught out after One News later played a recording of him making the response.
National Party deputy leader Bill English said it was not a glib off-the-cuff suggestion but had come from a high-ranked Labour official who had experience in campaigning.
"It shows there is a culture of entitlement and secrecy right to the upper ranks of the Labour Party about the use of taxpayer money.
"The Labour president has misled the public again in a bid to hide Labour's plans to break the law. Mr Williams can't be relied on to tell the public the truth, yet Helen Clark is defending him. This is an indictment on her judgment."
Yesterday, Helen Clark was alternately claiming Mr Williams was "loose and confused" and querying whether One News had set him up by not revealing it had the recording when Agenda interviewed him.
On Newstalk ZB she also questioned the ethics of the state broadcaster, saying it was a closed session and should not have been recorded.
However, she admitted she did not know who had recorded it, how TVNZ obtained the recording, or whether it was done by the media or leaked by one of the delegates in the meeting.
Asked if she thought Mr Williams was out and out lying, she said, "No, I don't think so. I think he was just confused."
She said she was baffled at Mr Williams' denial on Agenda, because he had confirmed it to her when she first spoke to him after the Herald revealed it last week.
The PM said Mr Williams had not offered his resignation and she had not asked for it.
"He is a good president but he should leave the politics to others and get on with hisjob."
However, she indicated she wastiring of defending his slip-ups, saying he had been reprimanded yet again and adding, "I hope it doesn't become a weekly event."
Mr Williams said on Agenda that he was unable to hear well at the congress venue and had not heard the comment properly.
He believed someone had suggested sending people to IRD to get information on KiwiSaver, and denied ever saying it was a good idea.
Mr Williams offered to resign in February after he failed to disclose details of a $100,000 interest-free loan party donor Owen Glenn gave to Labour. He also called for the expat billionaire to be made consul in Monaco, where he is based.
