NZ First leader Winston Peters has been afforded the rare privilege of being suspended from Parliament for a week, following a barrage of accusations levelled by Peters at Police Minister George Hawkins during Question Time over the David McNee killing. "A minister is involved in a cover-up whereby someone was murdered and the jury never heard the evidence that would have brought the murder conviction," Peters said. "Please tell me where else in the Western world I would witness this?" Speaker Jonathan Hunt, who had already said Peters was being "grossly disorderly", went on to name Peters and MPs voted 105 to 13 to suspend him from Parliament with only Mr Peters' NZ First colleagues backing him. NZ First MP Ron Mark told Parliament later that it was time the public was told why "certain facts" were concealed from the High Court jury that heard the McNee case; that McNee's killer Phillip Edwards had been seen driving McNee's car in Kaikohe and they had been seen in gay bars together.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Thursday, 9th September 2004 - 12:00pm