The pressure is on Cabinet Minister David Parker to resign from all of his portfolios following his resignation as attorney general.
Parker has admitted filing a return to the Companies Office that incorrectly declared a shareholders' resolution had taken place.
The minister, one of three shareholders in a property development company, stated in annual returns that all three shareholders had passed a unanimous resolution not to appoint an auditor. But another company shareholder, Russell Hyslop, says he was never asked to approve the resolution.
Prime Minister Helen Clark has accepted the resignation saying "there was no evidence that anyone had been harmed by the mistakes concerned, but nonetheless she agreed with Mr Parker that they justified her accepting his resignation as attorney general."
Parker says he only knew for certain on Monday that he had breached the Commerce Act. He says in one sense he made an honest mistake, after the official assignee dealing with Hyslop's affairs said two years in a row that approval wasn't needed. But he says in hindsight he realises he felt disquiet over the matter.
Parker says while he felt resigning as attorney general was the right thing to do, after taking advice from outside parliament he did not feel the need to go further.
But the National Party believes otherwise.
National's deputy leader Gerry Brownlee says Parker has admitted
multiple breaches of the law.
"While he may wish to describe it as a mistake, falsification of
documents is very clearly a serious matter," says Brownlee.
He says Parker made a deliberate decision to infer that everything had been done appropriately, when it hadn't been.
"Helen Clark must explain why it is acceptable for a minister
who has admitted 'cutting corners' on returns to the
Companies Office to retain the critical transport and energy
portfolios," says Brownlee.
The maximum penalty for filing a false return is a fine of $200,000 or five years imprisonment.
However, company law expert Stephen Lowe says it is unlikely that Parker will be prosecuted. He says Parker's specific mistake is quite technical and he has never heard of anyone being prosecuted for it.
But Lowe says as attorney general, Parker might have been subject to higher standards than other company directors.
