Advisers named

Press, 2 May 1981, Page 1

Advisers named

PA Auckland The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) has named Air New Zealand board members and the airline’s lawyer as the men who advised him there was no “litany of lies” at the Mount Erebus crash commission. Mr Muldoon said yesterday he had full confidence ‘in the advice of board members-, including the deputy chairman, Mr J. D.. Dalgety (a Wellington law-

yer), and Air New Zealand’s counsel at the commission, Mr Lloyd .Brown; Q.C. • . He said Mr Dalgety and Mr Brown were • among New Zealand’s top barristers and “would not tell lies.” .•Mr Muldoon named his advisers yesterday after the ' statement by the Royal Commissioner, Mr Justice Mahon, that Mr Muldoon’s faith in them cpuld be “sadly misplaced.”

Asked whether his advisers’ connections with Air New Zealand meant they had a vested interest in the argument, Mr Muldoon said he was not prepared to argue the point. Asked if he thought the Government might have' difficulty getting a High Court judge to chair a Royal Commission in the light of the Erebus controversy, Mr Justice Mahon said: “I think I’d better not say anything on that.”