KEY POINTS:
On the December 14 phone call from Mr Glenn to Winston Peters
[Mr Glenn said he called Mr Peters to agree to his earlier request for a donation. Minutes after that phone call, Mr Henry emailed Mr Glenn, referring to Glenn's conversation with his "client" and providing bank details]:
Mr Peters did not dispute the conversation but said he had no recollection of a discussion about money.
"That is not what happened in that conversation at all. I have no memory of that at all."
He listed several other topics discussed in that conversation, including interest in a "roving ambassadorship" role, the consulship, and racing.
"I've looked at this over and over again to try and make sense of it. It's quite possible he asked for Brian Henry's details and the sequence of events tends to suggest this occurred."
He said he had no memory of this happening, but it seemed the only explanation, or that Mr Glenn had asked him to call Brian Henry and pass over his details.
"I believe, and I say it's quite possible, that he asked me to call Brian and give him some details, and he may have mentioned bank details for all my memory is. I have no memory of that and it was one of reasons I was so infuriated when these allegations were made in February and repeated in July because I had no memory of that at all."
Asked by Gerry Brownlee if he would have questioned why Mr Glenn wanted the details, Mr Peters said he would not ask a businessman the reasons for wanting others' details.
"That's not what you do. Mr Henry is a professional man. The last thing you do is ask a professional man 'what do you want the details for?'."
On the Karaka sales in 2006 where Mr Glenn said Mr Peters thanked him for the donation
Mr Peters disputed Mr Glenn's account, saying he was seated across the table from Mr Glenn, not beside him, and about 12 others were also there.
He said intermediaries had told him Mr Glenn's evidence "was not remotely reliable".
"He did not sit next to me and you don't shout across a table 'thanks for the money' in front of 14 people".
He said he was also brought up well, and would not have waited seven weeks to thank Mr Glenn, if he had known about the donation.
He said Mr Glenn could not remember the name of the hosts, Peter and Philip Vela, despite being involved in racing.
On what he told the Prime Minister when she rang in February
"I believe she asked me, look it is being said here that Owen Glenn gave money to NZ First, and I said, 'look my staff have already told me that and it's not true, I've had them check with the office of the party the accounts'."
He later also assured that there was no donation to himself. The Prime Minister had not asked about a donation to legal costs.
"I know because, a) I remember what the Prime Minister asked.
"b) If you'd asked me about a donation to my legal costs I would have made a check somewhere else. But of course my problem has always been that this is a non-disclosable matter in Mr Henry's view because of the pattern we have followed since 1979.
"On that day [Glenn] told the Prime Minister he had given a donation to NZ First. The Prime Minister asked me that question and she gets the answer 'no'. Because the answer is still no, in case you've forgotten it."
On whether he had personally contacted Mr Glenn and asked for the money
Mr Peters maintains his lawyer Brian Henry contacted Mr Glenn to seek money. His staff had not found any record of a call on the day Mr Glenn claimed to have been asked from Winston Peters' own phone.
He said it was "quite extraordinary" Mr Glenn claimed to have no evidence or memory of communication with Mr Henry other than to get bank details.
"The real reason is because he had a conversation ... with Brian Henry. Brian Henry is adamant about that."
He said Mr Glenn had also referred to Mr Henry as "Brian" on one occasion, which he would not have done if he had not known him.
On Mr Glenn's evidence to the committee
Mr Peters claimed Mr Glenn was "coached" by his lawyer Geoff Harley. He said Mr Harley acted for Fay Richwhite in the Winebox Inquiry, and Mr Glenn's evidence "had his DNA all over it".
He claimed that he had heard Mr Glenn had two items of different evidence, which had changed by the time he addressed the committee, and his letters also conflicted in areas.
On whether he should have declared the donation in the Register of Pecuniary Interests
Mr Peters said he had received opinions from three different lawyers that it did not need to be declared. He had asked the registrar, Dame Margaret Bazley, for advice on whether it should be declared, but had not received a definitive answer.
He said he did not believe it was declarable. A further letter from Brian Henry says there was no debt, and similarly no gift because the payment was for the time Mr Henry gave to Mr Peters. Under electoral law, gifts of goods and services are declarable as donations, but not voluntary time.
On the allegations in general
"We've been subjected to any and every allegation, so many of late, all of which we will dispose of, I assure you of that."
