SHAMEFUL ABUSE OF PARLIAMENT

It is shameful that Labour is abusing Parliament with time-wasting claims, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said today.

"Privilege claims are meant for serious issues, not for petty political stunts."

Mrs Shipley reiterated her comments in her personal statement to Parliament today.

"At no stage before running their stories last Thursday did Barry Soper of IRN or Linda Clark of TVNZ contact me or my office to ask for my explanation of what they were about to claim.

"On a matter that TVNZ thought was so extraordinary that it abandoned its normal rule not to report alleged conversations in social situations, I would have expected the reporter to have come to my office saying TVNZ now planned to run a story it had been sitting on for three days, and to seek my explanation. She did not.

"There is no way that a barrage of questions from many reporters in a press conference which had been called for Mike Moore to discuss his progress on the WTO position constitutes an appropriate inquiry on such an important matter.

"I stand by my statement in the House today," Mrs Shipley said.