 The affair helped Peters' promotion to the frontbench after the 1987 election.Members of the Fourth Labour Government were divided on the action to be taken, with Prime Minister David Lange, Lange's staff, and his deputy Geoffrey Palmer wanting the resignation of Koro Wētere as Minister of Māori Affairs and from his seat in Parliament (Wētere would then face a by-election in an election year), though Cabinet decided against this on 9 February.Hence as Bassett later wrote, "Several ministers would agree in later years, however that it was about the time of the Māori loans affair that cabinet solidarity began to fall apart".