KEY POINTS:
It is fortuitous timing for Winston Peters that he is leaving the country today for Fiji on a Foreign Ministers' mission to help get the dictatorship back to democracy.
It means the domestic issue over a party donation may take a back seat for a few days - or possibly mar his trip to Fiji. But it will not go away.
There has to be an explanation as to why Mr Peters would say publicly that expat billionaire Owen Glenn had not given to the New Zealand First Party when emails from Mr Glenn to his PR man in Auckland say that he had given a donation to New Zealand First.
Mr Peters' response to the disclosure that he gave the party a donation - "he did not" - goes nowhere near offering the public the explanation needed.
Mr Glenn's refusal in February to confirm or deny a donation to New Zealand First, when he had willingly discussed others, led to suspicions that he had given to New Zealand First.
Mr Peters said those suspicions were wrong.
The leaked email suggests they were right.
In the absence of an explanation, the public will think the worst.
The public might think the worst of Mr Peters because Mr Glenn's record, since he burst on to the New Zealand political scene as Labour's big donor in 2005, has been one of disarming frankness, almost to a fault.
It is his unusual frankness on issues that are normally regarded as confidential by political parties that has seen Mr Glenn embroiled in controversies.
He was open about the fact that he had given Labour an interest-free loan - the controversy stemmed from the fact that Labour president Mike Williams had not been so open.
He was open about the fact that he wanted to become New Zealand's honorary consul in Monaco, an appointment up to Mr Peters.
He said in an email to his PR adviser, Steve Fisher, that he had given New Zealand First a donation.
The consultant's advice was not to deny the donation but to refer all questions about it to New Zealand First, which Mr Glenn duly did.
Prime Minister Helen Clark has every reason to treat Mr Peters differently from the high standards she set for sacked minister Lianne Dalziel and David Benson-Pope: Mr Peters' party keeps her minority Government in power.
National has every reason to run a middle course: to put the pressure on Helen Clark to demand the truth without offending Peters so much that he eschews the party if it needs him to form the Government.
That assumes that Mr Peters is returned after the election. How he handles this issue could determine whether or not that happens.
