P.M. says no ‘leak’

Press, 7 November 1978, Page 1

P.M. says no ‘leak’

PA Wellington The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) yesterday rejected a suggestion that the controversial National Party television scripts might have been “leaked” to the Labour Party as a political trick. The secretary of the Labour Party (Mr J. F. Wybrow) had said that when the Labour Party received the scripts he believed they “could be a plant.” The timing had been such that one could not help thinking it had been orchestrated, and the Labour Party had been reluctant to use the documents until they appeared in the Television One prograrne, “Dateline Monday,” Mr Wybrow said. Mr Muldoon was asked yesterday for his reaction to the suggestion that the documents might have been deliberately “leaked.” “That is about as credible as most of the things the Labour Party is saying at present,” he said. Mr Muldoon, in response to Mr Wybrow’s suggestion said that it might be another National Party “dirty trick,” said that he had seen Mr Wybrow on television recently looking extremely uncomfortable, with good reason. Mr Muldoon said that he had received information about the “Dateline Monday” programme, and he wondered how TVI had obtained certain pictures. ) Asked if (there was any evidence of! a crime, Mr Muldoon said: “Yes, of course — breaking and entering.” The reporter said that he believed there was so little security surrounding the documents that there could

hardly be a case of breaking and entering. Mr Muldoon: Your infor- > mation is different from ! mine, and this is what ! worries me. Mr Muldoon said that he was convinced there had i been a break-in, because ; of the information re- j ceived. The National Party j offices in Wellington had | also been burgled about ! the same time, he said. The Wellington branch j of the party has confirmed I earlier reports that more than $5OO in cheques and cash was stolen when the office safe was broken into. The National Party president (Mr (j. A. Chapman) j said yesterday that he be- 1 lieved the police were con- | tinutng their investigtions I into the allegation that j copies of the scripts were ; distributed after the offices : of a film company era- ! ployed by the party were ! broken into. Mr Muldoon had more to say about television in connection with South Pacific Television’s satirical series, “A Week of It.” “My understanding is that not just Muldoon but all political caricatures have been banned from the programme ‘A Week of It’ until after the elections,” he said. “I want to say that this ban does not result from any comment by me or by the National Party.” In Auckland yesterday, Mr Kevan Moore, the controller of programmes for South Pacific Television said that the ban would still apply regardless of what Mr Muldoon had said. “The conditions have been spelt out to the writers of ‘A Week of It’ about observing political balance until after the elections,” Mr Moore said.