Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
18 March 2014

Collins Falls Short on ‘Very Short’ Dinner

Questions still hang over Minister for Justice Judith Collins and her activities while visiting China as a Crown minister, says New Zealand First.

“Today in Parliament Ms Collins failed again to satisfy the public that everything was above board when she met directors of the milk company Oravida and called into their offices in Shanghai,” says Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Ms Collins surely does not expect New Zealanders to swallow the fiction that she went to a dinner in China as a senior New Zealand Minister and dined with a senior Chinese border official, her senior advisor and two heads of the milk company Oravida, in which her husband is a director, but did not talk at all about Oravida’s business.”

“Answering questions in Parliament she maintained that she attended a ‘very short’ dinner and the language of communications was ‘English or forms thereof’. This is despite the fact that the Oravida directors are Chinese and the Chinese border official had limited English.

“She also told the House she did not have a clue who paid for the dinner.

“The Prime Minister John Key has a serious problem here. His Minister of Justice continues to give evasive responses to questions about her conduct in China, questions he should have asked,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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