Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
15 November 2012

Whanau Ora Provides a Drug Dealing Paradise

New Zealand First says the four-year jail sentence of a Dunedin gang member who syphoned $20,000 of Whanau Ora money to buy cannabis is further proof that the scheme should be scrapped.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says the Dunedin Notorious Mongrel Mob was considered by the underworld as a model for how other criminal gangs could access Whanau Ora funding.

“Whanau Ora Minister Tariana Turia chose to ignore concerns that gang families had access to funding under the scheme. She can no longer hide her head in the sand.

“She must face up to the fact that Whanau Ora has no basic data on participation levels, and glaring monitoring gaps on where millions of taxpayer dollars are going.

“This means the Minister has no way of knowing how many other gangs are using Whanau Ora to fund drug deals and other criminal activity.

“The scheme has no transparency and must be scrapped,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

World Refugee Day:
Are We Doing Our Bit?

On World Refugee Day, Thursday June 20th, Doing Our Bit will officially launch a campaign to double New Zealand’s UNHCR Refugee Resettlement Quota...

New Zealand’s low refugee intake is not a new issue. In February a NZ Herald editorial commented that our intake was ‘paltry’, remarking that ‘surely we could do more’. In April, Amnesty International described the quota as ‘tiny'.

“Despite being a small country in the middle of the South Pacific, New Zealand prides itself on being hospitable. We are friendly to overseas visitors and we see ourselves as punching above our weight in international affairs,” said Murdoch Stephens, coordinator of Doing Our Bit.

“However, in terms of accepting refugees New Zealand is clearly not doing our share.” More>>