Lester Gray really is doing himself no favours whatsoever by continuing his wonky jihad against NZ First. Little wonder that Winston Peters is starting to tell the truth about Lester Gray.
A Newspaper reports:
New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has accused his former party president Lester Gray of having “mental health problems” – a claim strongly denied by Gray, who has previously raised questions about the party’s finances.
The accusation emerged after National’s electoral law spokesman Nick Smith told Parliament that Labour MPs on the justice select committee refused a request for Gray and former treasurer Colin Forster to appear before it in a private session during their inquiry into the 2017 election.
Peters then suggested outside the House that Gray had mental health issues and it would not have been appropriate for him to give evidence to a select committee.
Smith said it was “appalling the lengths to which the Deputy Prime Minister is going to silence anybody that raises questions”.
What is appalling is that someone like Nick Smith, who knows all about mental health issues, would continue to use someone politically, who despite his protestations to the contrary, has actually confessed to the world about his mental health issues on Facebook.
Strange that he would deny he is suffering from mental health issues when he invoked the names of Mike King and John Kirwan, both mental health advocates, especially on behalf of men.
It looks like Lester Gray was either lying in his Facebook post, or lying with his denials…either way, he has lied and it appears that Winston Peters is telling the truth.
Someone needs to grab hold of Lester Gray and talk some sense into him before he digs his hole any deeper.
Peters outside the House questioned why Smith wanted to hear Forster and Gray.
“The reality is he wants to hear evidence from somebody who is no longer treasurer of the party and knew nothing about anything because he wasn’t there at the time so why would he be an expert witness on something he could not possibly know anything about?”
Asked about what would be wrong with Lester Gray giving evidence to the justice committee, Peters said: “Lester Gray’s lawyer wrote to me and my board and asked if we would have regard to his current then mental health problems and I have respected that letter and never said a thing about it but we are not going to sit here and take that sort of behavior hereon in.
“In short, if his lawyer pleads with us to give some understanding on his mental health problems, then perhaps the corollary should be that she should not try and think that some select committee because of his present state of mind is the proper place for him to make submissions.”
When contacted by the Herald today to relay what Peters had said about him, Lester Gray said: “There is absolutely nothing wrong with my state of mind.
“I just did the round Taupo bike ride in 5 hours and 16 minutes in the weekend and I don’t think you’d do that if you’re sick or ill.
“I’m in full-time training for ironman in March which I have been for three months now. There is nothing wrong with my physical or mental state of mind and never has been.”
Oh, never has been? So he was lying with his Facebook post, and his lawyer is lying too? Does he not realise that you can indeed perform physical feats while suffering from depression…just ask John Kirwan. Right now he’s just being a dick. Someone who forgets their own Facebook posts clearly has some sort of issue.
Depression and other mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of and good on him for using physical activity as part of his get-well programme. Both my husband and I have suffered from depression and physical exercise has played a big part in beating back the black dog.
Lester Gray is not in a hole right now because he has or has had depression or another mental illness. He is in a hole because he has told two completely different stories and both of them cannot be true.