Labour's Byzantine moment

THE LONG VIEW - RICHARD LONG

The Honorary Consul. It has a wonderfully archaic ring. Most of us probably relate it to Graham Greene's novel, a tragicomedy of politics, betrayal and corruption.

This was Greene's personal favourite of all his novels, based on whisky-sodden British honorary consul Charley Fortnum (the use of that surname must have irritated the posh British grocer). Now the honorary consul position has developed a bit-part role in our own Winston Peters-Owen Glenn tragicomedy.

There are intriguing aspects to ponder in this. Consuls played a role in Greek city-state days and ancient Rome, being formalised by the Byzantium Empire, which brought the word consul into the lexicon. That's fitting because the Byzantines also gave their name to complicated, inflexible, impenetrable attitudes, which abound in this saga.

They also spoke medieval Greek, which sounded a bit like the language coming from Mr Peters at the parliamentary privileges committee hearing last week.

This did not do much to rebut Mr Glenn's evidence on the relevant phone calls and e-mails. Nor has anyone explained why Labour remained silent and complicit over the denials that their biggest benefactor (Mr Glenn) had also donated to NZ First – or at least to the Spencer Trust, a device that precious few in NZ First (including the deputy leader, president and secretary) seemed to know existed. Byzantine indeed.

Prime Minister Helen Clark says the November election will be about trust. Did she mean trusts?

The star of this show is the straight-talking Mr Glenn, philanthropist and political benefactor. His good deeds extend well beyond the $7.5 million he gave to the new business school at Auckland University and he deserves the Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit award the Government bestowed.

The extraordinary thing in all this is how appallingly Labour has treated Mr Glenn, who has given the party $600,000 in the past few years and was also prepared, he said, to secretly bail out Mr Peters once Labour confirmed that this donation would also suit their political aims.

Miss Clark would not even shake Mr Glenn's hand at the inauguration in February of the school he funded at Auckland university. Cabinet bovver boy Trevor Mallard was deployed to keep Mr Glenn at a distance so there was no photo opportunity.

Labour's chiefs obviously decided a public handshake would look incriminating in some way, perhaps by leaving the impression of honours and appointments for cash. Byzantine again.

When an irritated Mr Glenn answered back after Labour and NZ First questioned his word, the Beehive dirty tricks brigade went into action, spreading the word that Mr Glenn was "a head case".

There was no sign of faulty recall when Mr Glenn gave his evidence to the privileges committee.

He was cool, collected and impressive, even though taunted with insulting questions from Labour and NZ First: how could he prove that Mr Peters answered his own cellphone?

Mr Glenn previously sought appointment as honorary consul to Monaco, where he operates his international freight empire, employing 1800 staff. The Government went through the process of vetting him (Sarah Dennis, ambassador to Paris, was involved) but then got cold feet, probably because of the way the appointment would have looked in relation to the donations.

Now Mr Glenn's detractors claim he desired the post to get a diplomatic passport as some sort of international travel/tax perk. That's nonsense. Honorary consuls don't get diplomatic passports and get precious little other assistance (apart from a $5000 stipend and $7500 for receipted expenses incurred in promoting New Zealand). In effect, they spend much of their own money on the job, so they tend to be independently wealthy – like Mr Glenn

As a successful entrepreneur, Mr Glenn could spot opportunities for New Zealand. Ironically, Monaco's honorary consul in New Zealand, National MP Richard Worth, has urged the appointment of a counterpart in Monaco because of opportunities for our boat builders.

New Zealand has 61 honorary consuls in countries or cities where we do not have formal diplomatic representation, such as Paraguay, Uruguay, Croatia, Malta, Cyprus, Oman and Jeddah. There are dozens of counterparts in New Zealand.

Greene's ill-fated Charley Fortnum, based on the Paraguay border, would probably, in his day, have got his whisky supplies duty free.

Now, alas, our man in Paraguay – and his 60 counterparts in distant parts – apparently don't even get this perk.