Loan inquiry on in spite of police probe

Press, 26 August 1980, Page 1

Loan inquiry on in spite of police probe

PA

Wellington

The Government yesterday named a threeman commission of inquiry to investigate the Fitzgerald land loan controversy and said that the commission would proceed in spite of separate inquiries by the police.

The Commissioner of police (Mr R. J. Walton) had earlier confirmed that the police were investigating a complaint made by the Director-Gen-eral of Lands (Mr N. Coad) to the Wellington Criminal Investigation Bureau last Thursday. It is believed that the complaint relates to a statutory declaration of assets made by Mr and Mrs J. Fitzgerald when they applied to the Marginal Lands Board for a loan. ~ . , The Commission will , be chaired by Dr B. D. Inglis, Q.C., who is vice-president of the Wellington Law Society. The other members will be Air Marshal Sir Richard Bolt, who retired earlier this year as Chief of Defence Staff, and Mr J. J. Loftus, who retired in 1977 after eight years as Deputy Secretary of Defence. The commission has been asked to decide if there was any impropriety “by any person” in the granting of a loan to the Fitzgeralds, who are the son-in-law and daughter of the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) and friends of the Minister of Lands (Mr V. S. Young).

The loan would have given the Fitzgeralds $200,000 over five years to develop their windswept 930 ha property near Wellington. The Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) said the commission had been asked to report by November 14. He would not comment on the police investigation but the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said the commission would proceed in spite of it. Each applicant for ' Marginal Lands Board assistance must complete a form which requires the listing of assets and liabilities, asks whether the spouse owns or has an interest in another farm or urban land, and asks what other , approaches have been made for finance. Mr Walton said the complaint made by Mr Coad related to a statutory declaration. Such declarations are covered by the Oaths and Declarations Act, 1957. The Labour member of Parliament for Christchurch Central, Mr G. W. R. Palmer, said yesterday that the question of whether a false declara-

tion had been made to the board had been raised by the Opposition in several Parliamentary questions last month. 'Mr Palmer, a former constitutional lawyer, has been a leading figure in the Opposition’s probe into the affair. He said that the answer to one question by Mr R. W. Prebble (Lab., Auckland Central) had indicated that the police investigation might. be unprecedented. Mr Prebble had asked Mr Young whether action had been taken after false information had been found in loan applications. Mr Young had replied that errors had occasionally been discovered in applications but that no action had been taken. But Mr Palmer said that the Government’s standard response had been that questions could not be answered because the matter was to be considered by a commission of inquiry. A spokesman for the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) said that Mr Rowling, had decided not to comment on the three people named by Mr McLay as the commission of inquiry.