Collins’ Oravida visit replaced legal meeting

Judith Collins requested a change in the programme for her visit to Shanghai to include a lengthy side trip to Oravida’s headquarters resulting in a business legal roundtable being dropped, Grant Robertson said.

“Judith Collins was supposed to be in China as the Minister of Justice. Following an invitation from Oravida, she requested a visit to their Shanghai headquarters be part of her programme. As a result a ‘business/legal roundtable’ was dumped from her programme.

“This shows what the priorities were for this Minister. Rather than doing work in her portfolio area, she orchestrated a visit which official documents describe as a being to ‘increase the profile’ of her husband's company.

“Judith Collins has consistently misled Parliament and the public over her visit to Oravida.

“She said she ‘popped in’ on the way to the airport, when it was 30km in the opposite direction. She said her ‘only option’ was to go to Oravida or go straight to the airport. It was not the only option – in fact the visit replaced a justice-related meeting.

“New Zealand taxpayers have a right to expect that Ministers will go overseas to work in their portfolios and represent all Kiwis. Judith Collins has failed this test.

“That John Key has not held her to account shows just how low his standards are for his Ministers,” Grant Robertson says.

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