By JOHN ARMSTRONG
"End of the honeymoon," crowed Act's Rodney Hide as Parliament yesterday witnessed something historic - an apology from a Prime Minister.
It did not matter that this was the most low-key of apologies over something of piddling significance. National and Act MPs whooped like it was Watergate. It was Clarkgate. They had caught the PM out.
The guts of the case was that a letter dispatched from her office in late December instructed officials to contemplate lower-level alternatives to a royal commission on genetic engineering, even though Labour policy was for a royal commission with bells on.
Helen Clark subsequently lashed out at public servants in early February for producing such alternatives when they had only been doing what they were told.
"Will she now apologise to the country's 20,000 public servants she has so wrongly maligned?" thundered National's Nick Smith.
Helen Clark noted her letter had been corrected in early January, yet officials were still trying to undermine Government policy in February. Nevertheless, she had inadvertently signed the original letter in error.
"Contrary to some belief, I do not pretend to infallibility ... Of course, if any offence has been caused, an apology is offered ... I made a mistake. I am not infallible. I'm sorry." Translation: I was wrong. I'm sorry. Let's move on.
If she thought contrition would take the wind out of National's sails, she was mistaken. When she offered to table a copy of the offending letter, Dr Smith jumped to his feet, pointing out that she and other ministers had declined numerous Official Information Act requests to release it.
For Dr Smith and his colleagues, the apology was a much-needed trophy, albeit a small one, to carry aloft into the coming three-week recess after National's dismal start to the parliamentary year.
National may be genetically unsuited to Opposition. Not so the Greens - Labour's supposed friends. Dr Smith had no sooner sat down than the Greens' Sue Kedgley was popping up with an embarrassing question. Why was the Crown's AgResearch institute trying to create a flock of genetically engineered sheep when the Government was pontificating about a moratorium on such trials while the royal commission did its work?
AgResearch Minister Pete Hodgson got tetchy as Sue Kedgley told tales of mutant mutton, while Green MP Jeanette Fitzsimons warned of dodgy sheep droppings ending up in the Waikato River.
A sarcastic Mr Hodgson said he was not sure what conditions the Environmental Risk Management Authority would place on the trial to prevent mishaps.
But previous trials had confined such animals within a double-fenced paddock. "And if that's not enough, we could always whistle up a decent sheep-dog," he barked.
By then, it was not clear whether he was talking about rounding up the sheep or the Greens.
Reality bites for Clark at last - or is it just barking?
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