Examination of Witness (Questions 20 -
39)
TUESDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2000
MR JOHN
RAFFERTY
20. This was at the later stages of the campaign?
(Mr Rafferty) Yes.
21. When you say "later stages", how
many weeks before the election are you talking about?
(Mr Rafferty) Certainly four weeks before the election.
22. Before that, could you give us the pattern
of a day before the four-week period?
(Mr Rafferty) Yes. Before the last stage of the campaign
the day certainly began later, and did not have, I suppose, the
urgency of the later part of the campaign. So the day began between
8 and 9 o'clock with, always, a campaign group meeting; various
policies to be established, researched and carried out, and so
forth. It usually ended around 6 or 7 in the evening.
23. So that was a period of how long? For how
long were those hours worked?
(Mr Rafferty) I started that consultancy on 12 January.
So I would imagine January, February and March.
24. For several months?
(Mr Rafferty) Yes. For approximately three months.
25. The ordinary pattern would be starting when
and finishing when?
(Mr Rafferty) The ordinary pattern would be starting
between 8 and 9 o'clock in the morning and finishing around 6
in the evening.
Mr Bottomley
26. Taking you to the transcript of your discussion
with the Commissioner and turning to the Suzanne Hilliard issue,
there are the words that until you read the Observer article
"I did not know that Suzanne Hilliard had worked for any
Member of Parliament." Suzanne Hilliard was one of, roughly,
how many who were working closely with you?
(Mr Rafferty) I suppose there were, at times, 20 or
30 people working in the campaign.
27. She and you were working as reasonably close
colleagues for, roughly, what period?
(Mr Rafferty) She was not there all the time. Certainly
in the last month, because Kevin Reid had given up being in charge
of media monitoring, I worked more closely with her.
28. If someone were to have asked directly,
would you have expected to know if someone doing her sort of work
was working for a Member of Parliament as well? Would you have
expected to know that?
(Mr Rafferty) No. I genuinely thought she was a volunteer.
Chairman
29. Genuinely thought it was?
(Mr Rafferty) I thought she was a volunteer.
Mr Bottomley
30. Basically, however, you did not know she
was working for a Member of Parliament. Might you have expected
to know what she was doing outside?
(Mr Rafferty) No.
31. You would not know what she was doing outside?
(Mr Rafferty) No.
32. And you would not have known that she was
being paid either by the Party or by somebody outside?
(Mr Rafferty) No.
33. So she could have been spending ten hours
a week doing some regular job for somebody else?
(Mr Rafferty) I would have no knowledge of that.
34. In terms of being able to do that—and,
certainly, to take the last month or four weeks of the campaign—would
you have thought it was reasonably possible for her to have worked
for somebody else for more than 10 or 15 hours a week?
(Mr Rafferty) I honestly cannot say what is possible
and what is not possible. In the last month of the campaign we
were there all the time. It was extremely hard work. But I had
no knowledge of what people did outside.
35. That is my second question. My first question
was: taking the words "I did not know she had worked for
a Member of Parliament", from your memory there was the time
available for her to have done work for somebody outside?
(Mr Rafferty) I suppose that is possible.
36. Were you surprised when you heard she had
been working for a Member of Parliament during this time?
(Mr Rafferty) I had no knowledge of it whatsoever.
I was surprised.
37. You were surprised.
(Mr Rafferty) Yes.
Mr Campbell-Savours
38. Do you remember the first conversation you
had with Mr Nelson about this?
(Mr Rafferty) I cannot remember when the story was
printed. It was the day before the story was printed.
39. Were you the origins of the story?
(Mr Rafferty) No.
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