Mr Beetham angered by mailing accusation

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 20

Mr Beetham angered by mailing accusation

PA Auckland The Democratic Party leader, Mr Bruce Beetham, is Incensed at suggestions the distribution of his statements through the Parliamentary free post system is an abuse of privilege.

The “Auckland Star” reported last week that it had received Mr Beetham’s press statements in envelopes mailed from the Parliamentary office of a Democratic member, Mr Neil Morrison. Mr Beetham has said that implications in the article that he personally arranged the free mailing and that this breached Parliament’s rules were totally Incorrect “I did not at any stage personally attempt to arrange free mailing from Parliament through Neil

Morrison of anyone else to the ‘Auckland Star* and I did not even know the ‘Star’ was receiving my statements. No statements were sent either at my instruction or at my initiative.”

Quite apart from that, he. said, there was no breach of existing Parliamentary rules for a member to send political statements from other sources.

Members had the right to distribute by direct free post to newspapers whatever they liked, provided it stopped short of overtly party material sent en masse to individual constituents.

Parliament’s Clerk of the House, Mr Dave McGee, said he could not give an opinion on the propriety of this case.

That would need a ruling from the Committee of Privilege and only a member could raise such a matter with the committee. He was not aware of any intending to do so.

The editor of the “Auckland Star,” Mr Jim Tucker, said statements from Mr Beetham have been arriving at the newspaper’s office with others from Mr Morrison, and Messrs Garry Knapp and Alisdair Thompson (via Mr Morrison’s office) since a meeting between them and the “Star” last year.

The “Star” invited them to send statements after their complaints that coverage of the party’s had been unsays-