Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
19 March 2014

Milk Maid’s Explanations Turn Sour

The Key Government is contaminated with the taint and smell of corruption from Oravida’s milk maid, Minister for Justice Judith Collins, says New Zealand First.

“There was nothing spontaneous about Ms Collins’s contact with her husband’s company while in China. This was an intentional business meeting,” says Leader Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“She was invited by the company before she left New Zealand but it was one big cover-up.

“She did not tell the Prime Minister and did not put it in her trip report on her return yet she had lunch with the Oravida executives and dinner with the executives and a senior Chinese border official. She also visited Oravida’s offices.

“Instead of just popping in as she says, she went out of her way – in fact, in the opposite direction to the airport where she was to board a plane later.

“The visit and meetings were an intentional business meeting to secure advantage and benefit for Oravida. Its own executive had said, before the minister’s trip, that Oravida was having problems after the botulism scare.

“But the milk maid wants us to believe she never talks to her husband or her close friends about Oravida, yet they are all executives.

“And where is the copy of her reply to Oravida’s invitation? Her office wants another 20 days before providing it, what is the problem?

“We have a Cabinet Office Manual to protect the public from corrupt practice - but sensible Ministers know it is also to protect them.

“The irony is that the ostensible reason for Judith Collins official trip to China was to talk about probity and principle in Government affairs.

“The Prime Minister must take the ultimate responsibility for the failure of his Minister.

“Where was the integrity, the standards, the care and the probity?” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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