KEY POINTS:
Labour Party donor Owen Glenn's extraordinary claim that Helen Clark tried to lure him back to New Zealand with the offer of a Cabinet job has unfortunate connotations.
The PM would not have been amused at publicity over the expat billionaire's claim she had dangled the prospect of him ultimately being Transport Minister. A claim which suggested the relationship between Labour and its biggest private donor is close to one of political cronyism.
Clark would not engage directly on Glenn's claim yesterday. All I managed to extract from her press secretary Kathryn Street was a one liner: "The response from a spokesperson for the Prime Minister is it never happened".
But Glenn's recollection of the conversation was sufficiently full that he could relate to reporter Kim Ruscoe just where the conversation took place (Kawau Island after the Millennium Cup Super Yacht regatta). He also recollected his reasons why he wouldn't want the job (assets like the railways were sold ... Qantas was closing in on Air NZ ... what would he do?) and her rejoinder (these things might not have happened if we had people like you).
His big-noting may have been an attempt to impress a journalist through inflating an informal conversation with the Prime Minister after a big day at sea. Glenn wouldn't take questions on the affair yesterday.
He had previously been prepared to meet me but went to ground for the weekend.
What has been confirmed is Glenn's revelation that he loaned the Labour Party money after the 2005 election, so it could employ professional fundraising rather than take round the begging bowl.
Glenn's status as Labour's foremost financial donor at the 2005 election immediately sparked front-page controversy in the Herald when his appointment as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit was announced in the New Year's Honours list. The award was for services to business and the community.
The founder and chairman of the OTS Logistics Group - who left New Zealand in 1996 to form his global empire - had stumped up $7.5 million of the cost of building the new University of Auckland Business School and endowed a couple of chairs.
But it was the fact that he had also stumped up more than one third of the $1.35 million private donation tally that underpinned the Labour Party in the run-up to the 2005 election that got tongues wagging.
When Glenn's gong was announced Labour Party president Mike Williams was quick to play down any suggestions of cash for honours. He said Glenn had not made any donations to Labour since 2005, but he would certainly be approached before the 2008 election.
The Labour Party president's comments may be literally true. But they now appear disingenuous.
Yesterday Williams confirmed Glenn had made a $100,000 loan on interest free, not commercial, terms. It has been repaid in full.
The $100,000 loan Glenn extended Labour would have come at a time when it was cash-strapped after the 2005 election. An election where Auditor-General Kevin Brady later found that Labour had inappropriately plundered the public purse to the tune of more than $800,000.
In Auckland this week, the billionaire had been supposed to focus on philanthropic matters when a series of interviews with selected journalists were lined up for him by his PR agency Baldwin Boyle Group. This firm's David Jamieson told me Glenn "doesn't want to talk about the donations issue". He was here to pump fundraising.
But the boisterous entrepreneur didn't stick to the script. In his interview with Ruscoe, he disclosed:
* Helen Clark tried to lure him back to New Zealand and a post in the Labour Cabinet, suggesting that he would be a sitter for Transport Minister
* He loaned Labour a relatively small amount of money after the 2005 election so the party could employ fundraisers.
* He was prompted to donate $500,000 to Labour because of moves by a church - which turned out to be the Exclusive Brethren. Glenn thought this was "sneaky".
Glenn made his first donation of $200,000 to Labour in 2004 well before the Brethren's intervention in the 2005 election became public. Park that.
The real issue is that the financial relationship between Glenn and the Labour Party has been much deeper than Williams' New Year comments suggested.The 2005 loan may have been interest free. But under election rules the interest foregone still counts as a donation.
Owen Glenn's disclosures call into sharp relief how much of the $800,000 Labour paid back into taxpayers' coffers is the result of similar loans. The public is entitled to know.
