27 June 2012

MEDIA STATEMENT

Whanau Ora claims unjustified

Winston Peters has once again demonstrated his love for political theatre by creating a great melodrama out of a series of unproven facts said Tariana Turia following question-time today.

Mr Peters has cast doubt on the value of Whānau Ora – speculating about the spending of “$174 million of hard-earned taxpayers’ money—some of which is in this audit here—when many providers are using it to pork-barrel, and rort, and commit fraud”.

“Problem is – and it’s a problem for Mr Peters – the organisation he referred to in the House today has never received any funding from Te Puni Kokiri; it is not part of a Whānau Ora Collective – and in actual fact in the audit he referred to there was no mention of Whānau Ora.

“Mr Peters makes allegations at his whim about Whānau Ora – and deserves to be challenged about the veracity of these claims. Sadly his attempts to undermine Whānau Ora will not work because there is no truth in these claims.

“As to the allegations around the financial position of the particular organisation should be taken up with the National Collective of Independent Women’s Refuges and the Ministry of Social Development who has responsibility for operational funding for some of the work of the Womens Refuge movement.

“As my colleague Paula Bennett pointed out today, MSD funds some 2,300 providers with over 4,000 contracts. Occasionally if things go wrong, and there is an allegation of wrongdoing, MSD move in and find out what’s going on, and that is the appropriate course of action to take” says Associate Minister for Social Development Tariana Turia.

“I’m happy to be held to account for the decisions I take, but I won’t stand by and let anyone try and discredit me or my officials with the wild allegations we have seen today. It is a very sad day in politics when grandstanding Winston never lets the truth get in the way of a good story”

ENDS

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